Jobapalooza

February job numbers out, and they're pretty good: +227k new jobs, unemployment rate unchanged at 8.3%.  The big bonus: serious upward revisions in the December and January figures and an increase in the labor participation rate.  More people are looking for work, and this kept pace with the job increase, resulting in the unchanged unemployment rate.

The participation rate, which indicates the share of working-age people in the labor force, rose to 63.9 percent from 63.7 percent.

Private payrolls, which exclude government agencies, rose 233,000 in February after a revised gain of 285,000 the prior month. They were projected to climb by 225,000. Manufacturing payrolls increased by 31,000 after a revised 52,000 gain.

“There is hiring going on,” Richard Fearon, chief financial officer at Eaton Corp. (ETN) said at a March 6 industrial conference in New York. The Cleveland-based maker of circuit breakers and truck transmissions will “definitely need more manpower to serve” growing demand for tractor-trailers and for the equipment used in construction and hydraulics, he said.

Employment at service-providers increased 203,000. Retail trade payrolls fell 7,400 in February. Professional and business service payrolls increase 82,000 last month, including a 45,200 pickup in temporary hiring.

Kinda worried about the temp job numbers but it's better than being unemployed in a number of macroeconomic respects.  Meanwhile, the GOP (including my own senator Rand Paul) has a budget plan that will balance the budget in five years.  Want to guess the asterisk?

The lawmakers said they would turn Medicare into a premium support plan that would give seniors the same healthcare plan as members of Congress. They say this would save an estimated $1 trillion over 10 years.

“What we’re doing is telling seniors that you can have the same plan that congressmen and senators have,” DeMint said. “They get the same premium support that we do.”

The trio would curb Social Security spending by increasing the retirement age over time and indexing benefits to individual incomes. High-income earners would see slower growth in their benefits while low-income workers would see increased benefits.

The proposal would fund Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, food stamps and child nutrition programs through block grants.

It would cut most discretionary spending to fiscal year 2008 levels but spare national defense spending from the deep cuts mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

It would freeze foreign aid spending at $5 billion a year and eliminate the departments of Commerce, Education, Housing and Urban Development and Energy and privatize the Transportation Security Administration.

Yeah.  Awesome plan, guys.   Please remember that your votes for Congress are just as important as your vote for President this November.