Tagged: Economic Numbers

Every day there's a new economic indicator. Some are up. Some are down. And all are spun by the political parties.

Another piece of data to fit into a confusing employment jigsaw puzzle: this time, it's advertising for new jobs – U.S. companies in March posted the highest number of those in four years.

The Labor Department says some 3.74 million job openings were advertised for the month, the most since July 2008, about six months after the recession officially began but still just ahead of the financial meltdown.

What does it mean?

If you're an optimist, it means employers are feeling a bit more "robust" about the economy and want to add workers.

For the second month in a row, weak job growth numbers unsettled nerves in the White House and on Wall Street.

It's obvious why the number of jobs added to the economy in April was disappointing. Employment grew by just 115,000. That followed a disappointing job gain in March. Together, the March and April average was only about half the 250,000 jobs added monthly in December, January and February.

Again, economists suggested the warm winter weather might have boosted job growth during the winter months, which left fewer jobs to be added in the spring.