Unemployment down to 4.7%

This caps the best hiring quarter since 2000 as 211,000 more jobs were added last month. Of course Bush gets zero credit for it... President George W. Bush, facing declining popularity, said the report is ``evidence of an economic resurgence that is strong, broad and benefiting all Americans.'' Fifty-nine percent of Americans disapprove of the way he is handling the economy, up from 57 percent in early March, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted April 3-5 of 1,003 adults. Economists expected payrolls would rise by 190,000 following a previously reported increase of 243,000 in February, according to the median of 77 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates of the increase ranged from 150,000 to 300,000. Economists also projected the unemployment rate would hold at 4.8 percent. ``This is as strong as labor markets have been for the past four years,'' keeping the Fed ``biased toward further tightening,'' Steven Wood, president of Insight Economics LLC in Danville, California, said in a note to investors. [...] Employers will add between 1.5 million and 2 million jobs this year, Hoenig said. That compares with 2 million new jobs in 2005. Surveys in the last few weeks showed companies are holding on to more workers. Economists don't forsee any changes for the near future, which makes you wonder what exactly is it that Americans see that makes them believe Dubya's done a poor job handling the economy... an economy that went into a tailspin after 9/11 and was masterfully brought back under control over time with tax breaks and low interest rates, to name just a couple. I've got to believe they can't see past the deficit and out of control spending, two very un-Republican features of this administration. And the fact that the media will focus on the deficit, government spending, the price of gas, and whatever company is having a labor dispute or laying off workers. All this does is progogate the myth that our economy is in shambles.