candy, sunday morning, 9:00 a.m. eastern. jim, don t go too far away. we ve got more to discuss. signs of life for the economy. the labor department says the jobs picture is better than expected. we re going to break it down for you. plus, hillary clinton opens up in a brand-new memoir detailing some fascinating behind the scenes moments in her 2008 presidential campaign. some disagreements she had with president obama when she was secretary of state.
economists expect a bit of a spring thaw in those march numbers. 213,000 jobs added last month. that s the forecast from economists surveyed by cnn money. that s up from 175,000 in january or february, rather. the jobless rate slipping to 6.6%. that s an improvement in the jobs picture. now, the big question, the asterisk, if we see a very strong number, what kind of jobs are we creating? are they the kind of high-paying jobs that drive your personal economy? well, the evidence so far is no. we got a look at how much money americans are making following the great recession. a lot of data from the bureau of labor statistics. we crunched all of that. it turns out, the majority of jobs in the country pay below $20. the majority of jobs in the country pay below $20 an hour. why? many of the jobs added in the recovery have been lower paying jobs. food services has grown steadily over the past year. home health aides pay about $9 an hour.
it s close to setting a record high. alison kosik, while we all run and check our 401(k)s, tell us what is behind the spike. this is turning into a nail-biter. we re watching the dow. it hit a fresh record high during the trading day. not sure it will close there. the closing bell in a minute. we ll know after the numbers settle. what s making stocks trade in the green today could be hope propelling the rally today. though historically april is a strong month for stocks anyway. there s been optimism that the march jobs report which comes out on friday, optimism it will be better than expected because the thinking is we re finally past that cold, brutal weather we ve been having that s been slowing the economy down. we ve already had indications that have shown promise that the economy is doing a little better, including personal spending numbers, consumer confidence numbers, manufacturing, and construction spending. all those numbers have been improving as the weather heads to warmer
taper are much greater than the benefits of the taper. they will be careful. this came out and this is a good sign for the economy, yes? they will stand on their own two feet. the jobs market is strengthening for the long-term. the same picture for people recently unemployed things are getting better. you can see a 6.8 employment rate. that s what happens. the jobs picture is getting better. that gives the fed breathing space. since i have you and you stayed up and cohosted the show at 5:00 this morning. let me ask you about the settlement between jpmorgan and the bernie madoff ponzi scheme. now the bank is getting off with the fine. what s going on in washington?
that s giving investors confidence to put their money back into the market. you look at gdp. it s stronger than first thought. the jobs picture is getting better, although it s not quite where we d like it to bement car sales are solid. to be. car sales are solid. and the easy money policies of the fed, the federal reserve, buying $75 billion of bond every month. and by most accounts, the fed did a good job in conveying the fact that it was going to go ahead and cut back on its bond buying by $10 billion a month. what you re seeing now at the end of the year as investors taking this news enthusiastically to say the least. investors are taking this news enthusiastically and i don t mean to be debbie downer, but there s a new cnn poll that shows most people, 70%, don t feel the economy is getting better. what gives with that? reporter: you know, there s the continual disconnect that we talk about. and you know, a lot of that really has to do with jobs. you know, what s interesting