Last week, the big news, and somewhat of a surprise, was Friday’s Employment Report.  Total nonfarm employment is up 2.077 million over the last year, and up 783 thousand so far in 2013 (a 2.35 million annual pace).

Private employment is up 2.166 million over the last year, and up 813 thousand so far in 2013 (a 2.44 million annual pace).

This would be the strongest annual rate for private sector job growth since 1999 (update) if this pace continues for the entire year! Imagine if there was less fiscal restraint … Hopefully fiscal restraint will ease later this year, and we will see an increase in economic growth.

Although this report was somewhat better than expectations (and much better than some of the “whisper” numbers), it is still a fairly weak job growth considering the slack in the economy (the upward revisions to February and March make this a more solid report). I’d like to see an average or 250 thousand jobs per month or more.

Of course public payrolls are continuing to shrink (four years of declining public payrolls now), and that is one reason job growth is sluggish.

And on construction employment: Construction employment is up 154 thousand over the last year, and up 79 thousand so far in 2013 (a 237 thousand annual pace). (Source:  Calculated Risk).