Finally, JOBS!

[mburbank]

U.S. job growth soars
Gain of 308,000 jobs far better than Wall Street's forecasts; unemployment rate up to 5.7 percent.

By Mark Gongloff, CNN/Money senior writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. payrolls grew at the fastest pace in nearly four years in March, the government said Friday, in a report that soared past Wall Street forecasts and could play a pivotal role in Fed policy and the presidential election.

Though economists cautioned that one month does not a trend make, it was possibly the best economic news since the onset of the last recession in 2001, and a sign of spring for the nation's labor market, which has been mired in its longest slump since 1939.

Payrolls outside the farm sector grew by 308,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department reported, compared with a revised gain of 46,000 in February. The unemployment rate, which is generated by a separate survey, rose to 5.7 from 5.6 percent.

Economists, on average, had expected 123,000 new jobs and unemployment at 5.6 percent, according to Briefing.com.

It was the strongest gain in payrolls since a matching gain of 308,000 in April 2000.




Thank God. I sincerely hope this is a trend. Too many people I know have been out of work for way too long.