Employment usually doesn't get going for another quarter or two.
This expansion is much stronger than we expected.
* * * * * J B K * * * * *
San Francisco
Payrolls increased in 33 states in March, led by gains in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania that signal weather, in addition to an improving economy, has influenced employment in recent months.
Employers in Maryland boosted staff by 35,800 workers last month, those in Virginia added 24,500 and headcounts in Pennsylvania climbed by 22,600, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. The states were among the most affected by February blizzards that pushed seasonal snowfall to records.
The number of states showing payroll gains increased from 27 the prior month and was the most since February 2008, a sign that the improvement in the labor market is broadening. Nationally, a report earlier this month showed employment increased by 162,000 last month, the third gain in the past five months and the biggest in three years.
"The labor market has, in our view, turned a corner," Omair Sharif, an economist at RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut, said before the report. "Recent data strongly suggest that economic growth is both broadening out and becoming self-generating."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aEqYHza8ZMNk
