March job growth continues to trend upward

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

After a month of natural disasters, man-made disasters, unrest in the Muslim world, debt crises and spiking food and gas prices due to market speculators, there was good reason to be concerned about the March job numbers.

 As Steve Benen at the The Washington Monthly writes:

This, therefore, is what we wanted to see.

The United States economy added 216,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department reported Friday, adding to hopes that hiring was finally on a steadier track despite concerns about overseas turmoil.

The gain in jobs slightly exceeded economists' expectations. The unemployment rate continued to decline, to 8.8 percent.

The 8.8% unemployment rate, while obviously still way too high, is now at its lowest level in two years. What's more, the 216,000 created in March was the best month in about a year, and improved upon February's encouraging numbers.

Also note, the total would have been even higher had it not been for state and local budget cuts — the private sector added 230,000 jobs, but the public sector lost 14,000 jobs. Those were jobs that could have been saved were it not for conservative fiscal policies.

Nevertheless, this is the second good jobs report in as many months, and offers hope that the employment market is finally getting back on track. So far in 2011, the economy has added 478,000 jobs — and that just covers three months.

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Just as encouraging, the totals from January and February were both revised upwards, albeit a little.

From a purely political perspective, policymakers would ideally look at figures like these, and consider ways to keep the momentum going. Regrettably, congressional Republicans continue to fight for spending cuts that are projected to cost the U.S. economy 700,000 jobs. This morning's report should offer Washington a big hint: if we want more good news, the GOP plan needs to be rejected.

Once again, here's the homemade chart I run on the first Friday of every month, showing monthly job losses since the start of the Great Recession.

Steve Benen continues at The Washington Monthly:

In March, the overall economy added 216,000 jobs, but 14,000 Americans working in the public sector left the workforce, as state and local governments continued to cut spending. The private sector, however, added 230,000 jobs, marking the 13th consecutive month of private-sector growth.

More important that the streak, however, is the data. The 230,000 total not only beat expectations, it's a genuinely good number. We're accustomed to dealing with relative encouragement — results that are only heartening because of the larger, awful context. But a month in which 230,000 private-sector jobs were created is actually quite strong regardless of context.

Indeed, looking at the chart below, it's worth emphasizing that March's private-sector numbers were the second best since the Great Recession began in 2007, second only to February of this year. The combined data from February and March is easily the best two-month stretch in the last five years.

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With that in mind, here is a different homemade chart, showing monthly job losses/gains in the private sector since the start of the Great Recession.