There is some mixed news on the jobs front. In April there were 290,000 new jobs created, but unemployment also jumped to 9.9%:

More confident employers stepped up job creation in April, expanding payrolls by 290,000, the most in four years. The jobless rate rose to 9.9 percent as people streamed back into the market looking for work.

The hiring of 66,000 temporary government workers to conduct the census helped overall payroll growth last month. However, private employers – the backbone of the economy – boosted jobs, too. They added a surprisingly strong 231,000 positions last month, also the most since March 2006, the Labor Department reported Friday.

I like how the WaPo is trying to put a nail in a right wing talking point from the get go. They acknowledge the temporary government workers for the census, but also point out that private employers also added the most jobs in 4 years.

But here is what really gets me:

The reports came ahead of the Labor Department’s monthly jobs figures, scheduled for release Friday. The April data are expected to show a gain of 187,000 jobs, compared to an increase of 162,000 jobs in March, with the unemployment rate holding at 9.7%.

So we added over 100,000 more jobs than the economists were predicting. I wonder how that will play with Fox News, who put out a breaking news alert yesterday saying the jobs report won’t meet expectations? Sounds like they got that one totally wrong, which isn’t all that uncommon for Fox.