Decent jobs report

The 162,000 payroll jobs added in March was below what many analysts had expected, but revisions to the January and February data turned out to be better than the original estimates. In fact, January saw a gain of 14,000 jobs compared with a reported loss of 26,000 (another reminder not to jump to conclusions about any single number). Of the 162,000-job gain in March, 48,000 came from census-related temporary hiring. That's a lower figure than had been bandied about in recent days, and in a way it's a good thing because it means private employers added 123,000 jobs in the month, a huge gain compared with the last year or two. That number, however, might have been exaggerated because of February's snow storms, when hiring slowed down. In others words, it's a mushy report that can be interpreted in any number of ways. The early read is that it's decent but not terrific news. The nation's unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.7 percent. (NYT,
WSJ, BLS)