The jobs train appears to be at least thinking about leaving the station with a solid showing in April. Non-farm payrolls rose a strong 244,000, which significantly exceeded estimates of 185,000. Not only that, the past two months showed upward revisions of 46,000 jobs. Will this party continue or is it a flash in the pan?
Sustainable?
Again, I love the fact that the private sector was vibrant by creating 268,000 jobs in April. This is the major wealth creating engine of the economy and it is clear that it is revving up just at the right time. This leads me to believe that job growth is becoming sustainable and bodes well for the future. Government payrolls fell by 24,000, which is good in the sense that it finally may be serious about cutting costs (of course it’s not good news for those who got fired).
People who want to discredit the report are pointing to the fact that the unemployment rate rose to 9.0%. I have always thought this number is a farce and is difficult to calculate. If the economy is improving, more people will join the labor force in hopes of landing a job, which will actually raise the unemployment rate.
That didn’t stop the conservative leaning Drudge Report from splashing that on its headline. The reason is that the unemployment rate is the most politically sensitive, even though in reality I don’t believe it is the most economically relevant. That being said, I don’t think all is well in the world with the rate this high, but things are going in the right direction and it is misleading to only focus on the rate.
Duration Down
Another great piece of news is that the average duration of unemployment fell to 38.3 weeks from 39 weeks in March. Long spells of unemployment are deadly to the economy and the psyche of the people. It has terrible social as well as economic consequences. If this number can drop significantly, the state of our economy will improve dramatically.
The bottom line is that this report was excellent. I think signs are appearing that the job market is starting to undergo sustainable growth rather than just flashes in the pan. This is great news for all and puts another big feather in the cap of the bulls.
Another Strong Jobs Report is an article from: 
