April Jobs Report: It’s All Good

The April Jobs Report shows more good economic news:

On its face, the April jobs report released today by the Labor Department looks good, but the details look even better. Job growth was far above expectations in both the payroll and the household surveys, the rate of unemployment dropped to 5.6 percent, hourly earnings grew by 0.3 percent, and, best of all, the number of people suffering long-duration unemployment declined by hundreds of thousands. This is the first time in years that the labor markets show universally positive gains in every area—job growth, wages, and hours—in almost all sectors and across all demographics. The U.S. economy is moving from recovery into a self-sustaining expansion.

Payroll employment jumped by 288,000 workers in April, the second straight month of strong employment gains. The data also show that the number of working Americans is at an all-time high of 138.57 million, according to the household survey...

Not bad, given that Bush has been characterized by certain economists as the worst President for the economy since Herbert Hoover.