Unexpectedly good jobs report!

We added 178K jobs for March!

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 178,000 in March, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, in construction, and in transportation and warehousing. Federal government employment continued to decline.

Unemployment was down, and wages are up (3.5% year to year). Overall this was a better number than we have seen for while. I especially like the wage number. Generally speaking if you got a 3.5% raise for a year, that is not necessarily a bad number there. I remember years where our company was consistently giving raises in the 1-2 percent range, so 3.%% seems like a decent number.

Obviously this has not been a consistent thing, but as they say, nothing is better for your economy like a good war. Perhaps that is playing into this.