Employers added 228K new jobs in March, blowing past economists' forecasts

Knock on wood, but in my space, my customers report that business is picking up.

 

Yep, we had a pretty strong economy. Then Trump happened. Now trillions of market cap are being knocked out every day.

 

Depends on what you mean by strong economy. Growing up, my dad could afford a four bedroom house near the beach, a car and supported a family of seven on a sales rep’s salary.

 

Just checking, we're still saying "but it's the Biden economy” right? Trying to keep up...

 

And likely rarely ate at a restaurant, had considerably less entertainment, engaged in far less personal travel, etc.

 

To the contrary, ate out a lot and took big vacations. But spectacular erosion of purchasing power is the elephant in the room, this over the course of GOP and Democrat administrations.

 

For jobs it actually still is the Biden economy. This report is from data collected in mid March, just a couple of months after Biden left office. We will see the effect of Trump's policies on the jobs numbers soon enough though.

 

Sure.

Real Disposable Personal Income: Per Capita

Only a 4x increase since the 60s.

 

“Businesses and investors put a lot of stock in the numbers, which are rigorously vetted and free from political spin.

Now the Trump administration is calling that trust into question.

The government recently disbanded two outside advisory committees that used to consult on the numbers, offering suggestions on ways to improve the reliability of the government data.”

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/11/nx-s1-5323155/economic-data-reliability-trump-howard-lutnick

 

I added one job but I fired someone too. Sorry for the wash.

 

So does this mean that President Musk and VP Trump can have DOGE and Mr. Big Balls fire another 228k government workers?

 

I've got a couple that I am seriously considering adding to the negative if they don't get off my last nerve.

 

In the old days, for most companies, all the sales went through a salesman. There was no one buying things on the internet, or doing research on products through the internet. You could read some advertising info in the newspaper, or get the company's catalog (if they had one), but that was it. The salesman had to tell you what the product could do, and tell you what you would pay for it. A good salesman was very valuable to the company, and was probably paid accordingly. Nowadays, salesmen are less important, and are often replaced by a network of multi-media logistics coordinators and product experts.