The nation's jobless rate was 8.8 percent in March as private employers added 230,000 jobs to their payrolls, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just reported.
Those numbers are slightly better than economists expected. In February, the jobless rate was 8.9% and private employment grew by 194,000 jobs.
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Update at 8:55 a.m. ET:At 8.8 percent, the jobless rate is the lowest it's been since April 2009.
There's been growth in private payrolls now for 14 straight months. And in the past year, about 1.7 million jobs have been added.
But, there are still about 7 million fewer jobs on private payrolls than when the economy officially entered its last recession in December 2007.
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