You can only hope that these reports are kind of directionally accurate, as they tend to have large revisions. But what is also important to recognize is that the number of new jobs or the number of people reported as newly employed is tiny compared to the total population of jobs or workers, so really these reports would have to be incredibly accurate to be statistically meaningful. In any event, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the February jobs loss number was revised down by about 40,000 to a loss of 133,000 jobs, but March came in way over expectations with a gain of 178,000. The really good news is this was all private jobs, as government jobs actually had a very slight decline.
January’s job number was revised up, the household survey, which tracks employed persons, actually showed a loss, as the two surveys continue to show divergent results. And according to the household survey the unemployment rate dropped slightly, but this was largely due to a drop in the work force, i.e., illegal immigrants left and more Americans decided to become slackers living on government handouts. The annual gain in wages was calculated at 3.5%, which isn’t great. Jobs were up in health care and social assistance, two heavily government dependent sectors. A small increase occurred in construction and transportation jobs. Federal government employment was down, as was employment in finance and insurance. Full-time jobs increased strongly, while part-time ones declined. And we saw a return to growth in foreign-born workers, not clear if it is legal or illegal immigrants. (BLS Report)
