Jobs, Good News | featured news

In yet another sign of a strengthening recovery, the United States added 227,000 net jobs in February, the third consecutive month of gains over 200,000. The unemployment rate was unchanged from 8.3 percent in January, the Labor Department reported Friday, as nearly a half million people who had been staying on the sidelines rejoined the search for work. The strong job growth numbers could bolster President Obama’s effort to make the case to voters that his economic policies are working.

The pace of job creation by private employers accelerated more than expected in February, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.

The U.S. economy is improving faster than economists had expected. They now foresee slightly stronger growth and hiring than they did two months earlier - trends that would help President Barack Obama's re-election hopes....

Bloomberg reports that U.S. consumer confidence is almost back to pre-recession levels. But is that actually good news? Over at the Big Picture, James Bianco says it’s not clear why “consumer confidence” is a useful metric. It’s not correlated with jobs. Or retail sales.

U.S. stocks rose on Friday, propelling the Nasdaq index to an 11-year high, after January's U.S. employment report sailed past expectations, boosting hopes for world's largest economy.

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits plummeted last week to 352,000, the fewest since April 2008. The decline added to evidence that the job market is strengthening.

A burst of hiring in December pushed the U.S. unemployment rate to its lowest level in nearly three years, giving the economy a boost at the end of 2011. The Labor Department said Friday that employers added a net 200,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, the lowest since February 2009. The rate has dropped for four straight months

Amid signs that the overall jobs climate was improving, manufacturing stands out as an area of surprising strength.

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell further last week, ending the year on a three-month run of declines that point to stronger hiring in 2012. Weekly applications dropped by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 372,000 last week, the Labor Department said. That’s 11 percent lower than the same time last year and a positive sign ahead of Friday’s important read on December job growth.

The ADP report showed private employers added 206,000 jobs this month, prompting economists to raise their forecasts for the U.S. labor report on Friday.