A disappointing 120,000 jobs were added to the economy in March, well below expectations. However, the topline unemployment rate fell again to 8.2%. The revisions for January and February were mixed, with employment revised down a bit for January (to +275,000 from +284,000) and up in February (from +227,000 to +240,000).

The drop in the topline rate can be explained by a small drop in both the labor force participation rate (to 63.8%) and the employment-population ratio (to 58.5%).

Mark Zandi now predicts that the job market will come back at a much stronger clip than he previously expected, with the jobless rate under 8% by the end of 2012 and under 7% by the end of 2013. Zandi is the guy who predicted a bottom in housing prices in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. One of these days he may be right, and all of Washington will hail his analytical acumen.

I don’t know how many stories I can do just showing statistics of the Eurozone to prove that austerity in a depressed economy is disastrous. While news that the Eurozone is now experiencing it’s worst unemployment in years isn’t a surprise, it’s important to document an unassailable fact pattern, one that stresses how backward Eurozone (and U.K.) fiscal policy has become.

Ben Bernanke gave a speech today about the economy and the labor market that I’ve seen variously described as too pessimistic and too optimistic. I think both sides are right. The main problem is weak demand, not a mismatch of available jobs vs skills, and as Summers/DeLong write, we still need more stimulus even though the economy is slowly improving.

Job growth has picked up, averaging around 250,000 over the last three months. However, GDP growth for the first quarter of 2012, based on various economic indicators, looks to be coming in at 2% or less, which does not typically correlate with major job growth. Does this suggest slowing jobs growth in coming months?

Another healthy jobs report, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The economy added 227,000 jobs in February, and December (now 223,000) and January (now 284,000) were both revised upward. The pace of job creation over the past three months is on par with the average during the Clinton years.

The unemployment rate, however, remained unchanged at 8.3%.

In many ways this is the best economic data since the beginning of the recession. The Labor Department reports that unit labor costs have risen above the level of inflation for the first time since the end of 2008. And much of that can be attributed to higher wages, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Mitt Romney, struggling to regain the lead from Rick Santorum in national polls and facing a serious deficit in the key primary state of Michigan, has doubled down on his position against the auto industry rescue, arguing that the industry should have gone through a “managed bankruptcy,” mainly to squeeze out the United Auto Workers.

Recently we have seen a string of positive economic indicators that all point to the same general pattern. While the individual pieces are subjectively good compared to pre-crisis level, the data gives the clear impression that the economy is modestly trending in a positive direction.

The private sector added 257,000 jobs in the month, with the public sector again reducing by 14,000. If we had a public sector that wasn’t consistently shrinking as it has over the past several years, the country would be in a much better economic position.