Does anybody BELIEVE these figures???

[Tonchi]

I don't know how to post links like the rest of y'all so I have to copy this from http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/...2.asp?GT1=6469. We already knew that the Bushies rewrite and edit facts for their purposes, but to expect us to belive that "suddenly" there were more than a quarter million NEW jobs created in 30 days and that it's necessary to "revise" their own previous statistics to make them appear more favorable is not just "surprising", it's totally bizarre!

Economy adds surprising number of jobs

Employers add 274,000 positions in April, way above forecasts, cheering economists and fueling the stock market.

By MSN Money staff and wire reports

Employers ramped up hiring in April, adding 274,000 jobs, enough to hold the nation's jobless rate steady at 5.2%. The latest figures offered a hopeful sign that the labor market is gaining traction and that any economic rough patch will be temporary.

The Labor Department report, released Friday, also showed that job gains for both February and March turned out to be bigger than previously estimated. That also suggested that the overall health of the job market is improving.

"This is a solid number all the way across the board," Jack Boroudjian, principal at Brewer Investment Group, told CNBC's "Squawk Box." Money will start coming out of Treasurys and move into equities, where there are still bargains to be had, Boroudjian said. (See how the stock markets are reacting.)

The 274,000 net number of jobs added in April was the most since February and exceeded economists' forecasts. Before the report was released analysts were calling for a gain of around 175,000. They were also predicting the unemployment rate would be unchanged from March's reading of 5.2%.

Past months revised upward, too
Payroll gains were widespread, with retailers, health care providers, construction companies and financial services all showing employment rising. Manufacturing, however, lost jobs for the second straight month.

Job gains for March were revised to 146,000 from an initial estimate of just 110,000. And, payrolls for February were moved up to show an increase of 300,000, better than the 243,000 previously reported.

The Federal Reserve, worried more about inflation than economic growth, boosted short-term interest rates on Tuesday by one-quarter percentage point to 3%. It was the eighth increase of that size since the Fed began to tighten credit last June. The Fed was expected to keep pushing rates higher through much of this year.

Workers' average hourly earnings rose in April to $16, up 0.3% from March's $15.95. That was slightly higher than the 0.2% increase that economists were forecasting.

Addressing the labor market, Fed policy-makers said Tuesday that conditions "apparently continue to improve gradually."

The economy in the first quarter of 2005 grew at a 3.1% annual rate, its slowest pace in two years as high energy prices crimped consumer and business spending.

Tiptoeing through a rough patch
Oil prices, which had climbed into record-high territory on March 18 at $56.72 a barrel, set a new all-time high of $57.27 a barrel at the beginning of April.

Analysts believe that the rough patch the economy has encountered is temporary and not a sign of a slide toward recession.

President Bush wants to see the economy and the labor market on firm footing especially as he tries to sell the public and politicians a centerpiece of his second-term economic agenda: a revamp of the Social Security retirement program.

There were 7.7 million people unemployed in April, with the average duration of 19.6 weeks without work, the highest in a year.

However, the share of the working-age population working or actively seeking a job rose in April to 66%, up from 65.8% in March, which was a nearly 17-year low.

[Undertoad]

I believe the figures.

[lookout123]

numbers are always revised. it is standard.

would you believe the government statistics if they said 300,000 jobs were LOST during the same time period?

[breakingnews]

Adding 274,000 jobs is really not that big a prospect. It may seem like a lot, but ... well, put it in perspective.

Current U.S. working population is about 145-150 million. April's increase was about one-fifth of a percent of that population.

It works out to roughly 5,000 jobs per state. In a place like Montana, maybe not, but that's where the big cities more than compensate. New York City businesses (legally) employed 3.5 million people in March, according to the census bureau - that's up 23,000 jobs from February. Nationwide non-farm payroll grew 146,000 in March; NYC alone accounted for 15.7 percent of that growth.

And those numbers are revised because people put so much faith in these economic indicators that they want the numbers as soon as possible. When all the data is retrieved and the dust settles, then you see what you're working with.

[xoxoxoBruce]

However, the share of the working-age population working or actively seeking a job rose in April to 66%, up from 65.8% in March, which was a nearly 17-year low.

"Or actively seeking" sounds more like unemployed to me?!?
Tonchi, the lawn mowers are going back to work in the northern climbs and the Reservists in Iraq will be going to the Far East so their jobs are being filled.