The Labor Dept. announced this morning that 216,000 new jobs were created in March. Private (non-government) hiring was up by 230,000 which when combined with the 240,000 private sector jobs created in February represents the first time that over 200,000 jobs have been created in consequetive months since 2006. The unemployment rate fell to 8.8% and more importantly the size of the labor force increased by 160,000 indicating that workers were re-entering the job market and the reduction in the unemployment rate was not primarily due to discouraged workers.
High tech hiring has rebounded dramatically with Silicon Valley firms like Google,Skype, Zynga,Twitter and Facebook racheting up hiring to levels not seen since the late 90's. Google announced that all employees would receive a 10% raise and stated that 2011 would be its biggest hiring year ever.
Of course, many long term unemployed are still struggling and face dire circumstances as their unemployment benefits run out. At least there is now a solid ray of hope that the employment segment of the economy is participating in the recovery seen in coorporate profits.
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