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| Excon, XChouX, SteveHaddock: read this. |
ETWolverine |
04/02/04 |
Friday, April 02, 2004
WASHINGTON — U.S. businesses created jobs at the fastest pace in nearly four years as hiring increased across a wide array of industries in March, the government said on Friday in a report that stunned financial markets and provided long-awaited evidence of a job market recovery.
The report offers comfort to President Bush as the jobs market -- a hot political issue in the U.S. presidential campaign -- finally made a decisive break out of a long slump. Nevertheless, U.S. jobs lost since Bush took office still number a hefty 1.8 million.
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 (search) said. This was the biggest gain since April 2000 and well above the 103,000 rise expected on Wall Street.
The civilian unemployment rate, however, ticked up 0.1 percentage point from 5.6 percent in February. That occurred because more job seekers renewed their searches last month, but were unsuccessful.
"All in all, this is a very strong report," said Kurt Karl, head of research at Swiss Re in New York. "This is a number that everyone has been waiting for."
"It bodes well for the economy going forward," he said.
Economists said the report suggested the Federal Reserve (search) could raise overnight interest rates from the current 1958 low of 1 percent sooner than had been expected.
"I've been saying August for the first Fed hike, but maybe now it could even be in June," said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital.
The department said the end to the California grocery store dispute, which had idled 72,000 workers, boosted March payrolls by 10,000 to 20,000. The impact was muted because many of the returning employees were displacing temporary hires.
January and February payrolls were revised upward a combined 87,000, contributing to the report's positive tone.
Job gains were widespread across industries.
Construction payrolls shot up by 71,000, a bounceback from a 21,000 decline in February many economists had pinned on bad weather.
Retailers added 47,000 workers, in part a reflection of the return of the idled grocery store employees.
While a long-hoped for rise in manufacturing employment did not appear, the department said factory payrolls were unchanged last month, finally breaking a string of 43 consecutive monthly declines.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Have you been convinced yet that Bush's tax cuts were right for the economy? Or do you need another brick to slam you on the head?
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Clarification/Follow-up by excon on 04/02/04 10:55 am:
Hello Tom. I don't like either of the candidates. They're both from the Demopublican party and are, in my view, indistinguishable.
Proof??? Just a short while ago it was the democrats who said that deficits don't matter.
The deompublicans don't have deeply ingrained political philosophies anymore. They change sides when it becomes expedient. I don’t like expeditious politicians
Bring on Ron Paul.
excon
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