U.S. Dollar and Market Rocket Skyward on new jobs data

Jobless Rates Rise in Key Election States

"Missouri, a state Bush won in 2000, was one of nine battleground states where the jobless rate rose in February. The rate jumped to 5.1% from 4.7% and businesses cut 19,200 jobs from their payrolls. The nation's jobless rate is 5.6%.

In Arizona, another battleground state that Bush won in 2000, the jobless rate ticked up to 5.3% from 5.2% in January.

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

During the Bush Administration, 2.9 million private sector jobs have been lost - the worst job creation record in 70 years. At the same time, we have lost 2.8 million manufacturing jobs. To keep pace with the number of jobs available for working adults when President Bush took office, we would now need 7.1 million more jobs.

The Labor Department reported this week that more companies conducted mass layoffs this past January than in any other month on record - over 2,400 companies.

The Bush Administration and Congressional Republicans have failed to extend unemployment benefits despite continued high unemployment and lack of job growth, and despite the fact that $20 billion will be sitting, untapped, in the Unemployment Insurance Trust funds at the end of March. These are funds that should benefit our unemployed.

The economy is getting better.
People are finding jobs.
The terrorists are contained off our shores.
If this keeps up, Kerry will lose.

The unemployment rate, 5.7 percent, and the number of unemployed persons,
8.4 million, were essentially unchanged in March. Both measures remained
below their recent highs of June 2003. Unemployment rates for the major
worker groups--adult men (5.2 percent), adult women (5.1 percent), teenagers
(16.5 percent), whites (5.1 percent), blacks (10.2 percent), and Hispanics or
Latinos (7.4 percent)--showed little or no change over the month. The unem-
ployment rate for Asians was 4.2 percent in March, not seasonally adjusted.
(See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

Total employment in March held at 138.3 million, and the employment-popula-
tion ratio--the proportion of the population age 16 and over with jobs--was
essentially unchanged at 62.1 percent. The civilian labor force was about
unchanged over the month at 146.7 million, and the labor force participation
rate remained at 65.9 percent. (See table A-1.)

In March, the number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons
increased to 4.7 million, about the same level as in January. These indivi-
duals indicated that they would like to work full time but were working part
time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to
find full-time jobs. (See table A-5.)

this consistent railing of "partisan" when info is not exactly what I want it to be is getting tiresome.

there are some indications that economic recovery might very well be occuring but there remain some noteably negative residual problems that do not seem all that promising. A mixed bag of indicators indicates promise as well as concern for the current economy.

Dow ... look at it go.

S&P Index ... headed higher.

NASDAQ is heading up up up.

<Kerry turns on the T.V., turns pale and looks at his staff>
"We are SO screwed"

March Job Growth Strongest in 4 Years
Friday April 2, 8:28 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employment rose last month at the fastest pace in nearly four years, easily outstripping expectations, as workers returned after a grocery store strike and construction hiring bounced back on better weather, a government report on Friday showed.
The latest report from the Labor Department offered comfort to President Bush as the jobs market - a hot political issue in the U.S. presidential campaign -- finally made a decisive break to the upside.

Non-farm payrolls climbed 308,000 in March, the Labor Department said, the biggest gain since April 2000 and well above the 103,000 rise expected on Wall Street.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 5.7 percent from the two-year low of 5.6 percent seen in January and February.

Upward revisions to January and February payrolls helped contribute to the positive tone of the report, which could fuel expectations that the Federal Reserve may be closer to raising overnight interest rates from their current 1958 low of 1 percent than had been thought.

The March rise in payrolls reflected the resolution of a labor dispute at grocery stores in southern California that had idled 72,000 workers. The department said the return of those workers helped fuel a 47,000 increase in retail employment last month, but it did not quantify the impact.

Economists had said the return of those workers would boost payrolls, but that the impact was hard to gauge because it was unclear how many temporary replacement workers were being let go.

The report showed job gains were widespread across industries.

While a long-hoped for rise in manufacturing employment did not appear, the department said factory payrolls were unchanged in March, finally breaking a string of 43 consecutive monthly declines.