Strong jobs data
This is encouraging.
U.S. employment rose last month at the fastest pace in nearly four years as hiring increased across a wide array of industries, the government said on Friday in a surprisingly strong report that stunned financial markets....
Non-farm payrolls climbed 308,000 in March, helped a bit by the return of workers after a labor dispute at California grocery stores ended, the Labor Department said. This was the biggest gain since April 2000 and well above the 103,000 rise expected on Wall Street.
Now expect Bush critics to ignore this and focus on the unemployment number, which just ticked up slightly from 5.6% to 5.7%. Never mind that for more than a year now, they've been dismissive of the relatively low unemployment numbers and focused only on jobs growth, or the lack thereof.