VIA USA TODAY:
The unemployment rate remains at 9.7 %, though employers added 162,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department just reported.
The news comes as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the economy is recovering, but it will take many months to dig out from the recent financial crisis.
The unemployment rate will “stay unacceptably high for a very long time,” Geithner said Thursday on the Today show, citing “the damage caused by the recession.”
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs tweeted that the new numbers are a good sign of recovery: “Employers added most jobs in 3 years in March.”
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia said an increase in jobs is better than the alternative, but “excessive spending in Washington has created a huge debt burden that threatens the future of our nation, our workers, and our families.”
President Obama discusses the economy later this morning during a trip to Charlotte, N.C.
