The Labor Departmentreport released Friday showed widespread hiring in
industries across the economy at a time when President Bush re-election
campaign, counting heavily on a pickup in hiring, jumped into high gear.


For the first time in 44 months, the nation's factories did not shed jobs.
But they weren't hiring either. March's figures show zero gains and losses
for industries hammered by the economic downturn that began three years ago.
The only sector losing jobs last month was information services, where
companies cut about 1,000 jobs.


Revisions to payrolls showed a stronger jobs market than previously thought.
Companies added 205,000 jobs in January and February, instead of the 118,000
reported last month.

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January and February numbers revised upwards to 205,000.

That's 7 straight months of increases in the non-farm payroll employment
numbers...even if you're using the less-than-perfect Payroll Survey data
rather than the Household Survey data.

The economy has now added 513,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2004!