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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (559031)	4/2/2004 9:10:55 AM
From: JakeStraw	Respond to of 769667

Poor Kenneth, Your silly selfish political agenda has you rooting against the U.S. Maybe you should move to Canada? After all you seem to love socialistic policies.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (559031)	4/2/2004 9:11:09 AM
From: Bill	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769667

NONE, you antiAmerican scum. Payrolls Explode in March By Meredith Derby TheStreet.com Staff Reporter 4/2/2004 9:07 AM EST Click here for more stories by Meredith Derby Updated from 8:45 a.m. EST The labor market roared back to life in March, adding 308,000 nonfarm jobs, as two years of low interest rates finally sparked the employment revival that is seen as crucial to President Bush's reelection. Stock futures and bond yields spiked on the news. In addition to March's blowout number, which represented the greatest monthly job growth since April 2000, the Labor Department also revised higher the number of jobs added in the year's first two months. In January, payrolls grew by 159,000, not the 97,000 reported last month, while February payroll growth was 46,000, not the originally reported 21,000. "We've known all along the economy is growing and employment was a lagging indicator. This was a catching up," said Vincent Malanga, president of LaSalle Economics. "The labor market looks a lot stronger than it did five minutes ago." Taken together, the economy added 513,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2004. The unemployment rate inched up to 5.7% in March from 5.6% in April, a phenomenon that reflects changes in the number of people looking for work. Malanga noted that average hourly earnings were only up one-tenth of a percent, which shows "wages were tame, productivity was strong, and unit labor costs were under control." Economists, who had been criticized for overestimating the January and February numbers by wide margins, had been forecasting payroll growth of about 120,000 in March. Job additions were spread out among sectors. Construction employment rose by 71,000 in March, bringing total industry growth to 201,000 over the past year. Retail employment jumped by 47,000 in March for a four-month gain of 132,000. Employment in healthcare rose by 36,000, bringing the year gain to 255,000. Professional and business services added 42,000 jobs. Manufacturing employment was unchanged, stemming a two-year-old swoon that only started to moderate late last summer. Bond prices tanked on the news as traders got defensive ahead of a possible rate tightening. The 10-year Treasury note plunged 1 6/32, its yield spiking to 4.15% from 3.89% before the news hit. Futures on major stock indices rocketed higher, with the S&P 500 going from unchanged to up 9.2 points, while the Nasdaq 100 was indicated 22 points higher. The dollar soared. "This clearly gives the Fed more flexibility than it had earlier in adjusting monetary policy," Malanga said. "As the Fed itself said, it would require a lengthy period of large jobs increases to cause any change in policy. They would also need to see a change in inflation." Most economists think price pressure is unlikely as long as the average monthly payroll gain is below 200,000, and also doubt the Fed would tighten during an election year. So March's number is a political goldmine for the sitting administration, under which 2 million jobs have evaporated. It's obviously good for Bush. This is no longer a jobless recovery," Malanga said. Still, it remains "a sub-job growth recovery. Job growth is still lower than we would normally expect at an economy growing at this rate."