Cue up the Tom Hanks-narrated Obama 2012 campaign video! According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 29% of private-sector jobs that were cut during the downturn have been restored. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 227,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.3% (making it the lowest rate in three years). Reuters analyst Felix Salmon is feeling groovy this morning, writing, "This is looking like a real trend: the recovery in the American jobs market is going as well as anybody could reasonably expect." He adds:

It’s taken far too long to get here, but we’re finally moving in exactly the right direction, at an eminently healthy clip. Or, to put it another way: you can start breathing easier again, come the first Friday of the month. All those good job numbers were real, after all. And maybe next month the pundits won’t be on quite as many tenterhooks as they were this time around.

Phew, maybe we can finally stop worrying about the pundits, but the Republicans are unhappy.