Are the new unemployment numbers a breakthrough?
After months of disappointingly weak numbers, the labor market finally flexed some muscle, reports CBS News senior business correspondent Anthony Mason. The unemployment rate, 9 percent or higher for a record 21 months, has finally dropped below that mark, falling last month to 8.9 percent.
In Wisconsin this week, the Oshkosh Corporation was hiring 750 workers to make military vehicles.
"It's really a nice opportunity to put some people to work in some high paying jobs," said Rod Wedemeier, the company's vice president of human resources.
While the government laid off 30,000 workers, American businesses added 222,000 jobs in February.
Economist Michael Darda thinks these might be the kind of breakthrough job numbers we've been waiting for.
"This is encouraging if it can be sustained," Darda said. "The key is there's a lot of other indicators that are telling us a real turn is afoot."
The number of people filing first-time unemployment claims has been falling steadily and is now at its lowest level since July 2008. Among all industries, 68 percent are hiring. That's the broadest range in more than 22 years.
The Jobs Report: Who's Hiring Now
At Pennsylvania-based Almac Clinical technologies, which helps pharmaceutical companies conduct drug trials, President Jim Murphy has more than 40 openings. But he's having trouble filling those highly-skilled jobs.
"For a certain skill set, the unemployment rate is extremely low," Murphy said.
In fact, for workers with a bachelor's degree or higher, the unemployment rate is just 4.3 percent.
At Bison Gear and Engineering in St. Charles, Ill., Ron Bullock is also struggling to find qualified workers.
"We've gone up to a year-and-a-half filling an engineering position," Bullock said.
Manufacturing, health care, even the construction industry added jobs in February, but nine states have double-digit unemployment rates, led by California and Florida at 12 percent and above and Nevada about 14 percent. In all, 13.7 million Americans are still out of work.
"So even if we're getting these strong monthly numbers, it's still a three to six year horizon back to full employment, simply because of the depth of the hole that we're coming out of," Darda said.
Economists caution that last month's job gains may have been affected by the weather. January's snowstorms may have pushed hiring into February and inflated the numbers somewhat.
Another factor that has economists concerned: crude has jumped almost $13 a barrel to $104 and a gallon of gas in the United States has jumped almost 40 cents a gallon. That's certainly pinching people in the wallet, but economists say it's not enough to derail a recovery - oil prices would have to double for that to happen, which is not impossible, but unlikely.
