The consensus view of the March jobs report is that it was pretty good — slightly above expectations, and evidence that the labor market finally is in the midst of a self-sustaining recovery.

The Labor Department said on Friday that the economy added 216,000 jobs and that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.8 percent from 8.9 percent in February. That is down from a high of 10.1 percent in October 2009, although at this rate it will be years before the economy replaces the 8 million jobs lost during the recession. The gain is well below the pace of past recoveries in the ‘90s, when it was common to see job gains of 400,000 or more in a single month. And it is far below the 500,000 that Vice President Biden has predicted. ....

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