of course the fix, chris seliza. annie, how did you read these numbers that came out today? i think these numbers were a confirmation of a lot that we already knew. the recovery is here. it s very persist at the present time. it s very durable and it s not great. that means a lot of people are looking for jobs and can t find them. and it s just a continuation of these same trends. it s not that there s any real bad news in the report, it s just not very good news, either. doesn t seem like the recovery is really speeding up very much. chris, politically speaking, politico has a piece ought today said that democrats are praying for an economic spring, and even at this point to avoid a shellacking in november, a second shellacking if you will, even a single good jobs number won t be enough. i guess i m a little skeptical that the american public is hanging on these jobs numbers and will vote on them for the mid terms, given all the other stuff in the ether. i think you re right to
probably not as big as republicans would say but bigger. and play more of an active role. rand paul has made this point. he has said, look, i think people staying on long-term unemployment insurance benefits makes it harder for them to get jobs. we need to get them off it and force them to get jobs and go into the workforce. obviously that assumes they re not trying to do that which i think the facts don t bear out. but i would say it gets fundamentally to who the two parties are, what they view the right role of government to be in sort of normal circumstances. and as you make the point, alex, that s not changing. annie lowery from the new york times and chris teliza from the washington post. thank you both for your time. thank you. just ahead, we are still awaiting a live news conference. it looks like it is beginning at fort hood. the post s commander, lieutenant general mark milley, is going to speak to reporters shortly just in a matter of minutes, seconds.
public is hanging on these job numbers. i think the american public hangs on things like the results of dancing with the stars or the final four. as much as i would love if they did because it would be great for people like annie and myself and you, i think that they don t hang on every jot and tittle of political and economic news that comes out. i think what typically happens there s a perception. things are getting better, things are staying the same, things are getting worse. three or four straight months of good jobs reports, the coverage of the jobs reports winds up being sort of this is moving in the right direction, i think takes away the nightmare scenario for democrats in the 2014 mid-terms, which is the bottom totally falls out, president obama is not at all popular, obamacare is not at all popular, and people s perceptions that the economy is bad you re looking at a really bad situation for democrats. i think if you continue to see what annie pointed out, which is sort of a
monday, or if they do bring it up it won t get the votes. my guess is they won t bring it up, frankly, in its current state. and again, alex, this goes back to the first point which is if we had an american public that was watching every house and senate vote extremely closely and helping that shape what they think about which party is to blame, it might be different. but we ve learned over and over again in politics, this is the cynical part of me coming out, they don t watch it very closely. they re not watching c-span. they re not and i don t know who these people are they re not watching msnbc and you and us talking. they re not focused on this stuff. so i think as a result what happens day in and day out in congress doesn t have the sort of reverberations nationally that some people expect. and one could argue, annie, that the republicans feel like they can operate with impunity as it regards the long-term unemployed.
today s report according to the labor department in march the u.s. economy created a total of 192,000 jobs. but the jobless rate remained unchanged at 6.7%. the boost in the labor force participation rate after years of steady decline has some economists feeling hopeful. and more than six years after the great recession began, private employers have finally regained t regained 9 million jobs they lost. the bad behavior continues on capitol hill where republican resistance to extending unemployment assistance since december has left 2.2 million jobless americans without one of the only lifelines they have left. the senate is expected to vote on monday to extend that assistance, but the house, surprise, will not necessarily be following suit. joining me now is the economic reporter for the new york times, andy lowery, and manager editor of the washington post politics section and author of of course the fix, chris seliza. annie, how did you read these numbers that came out