Strong jobs report, but...

Much of the good news - the addition of 216,000 jobs and a drop in the U.S. unemployment rate to 8.8 percent - does not reflect the current bout of bad news: Specifically, a big jump in food and energy prices and the disruption in manufacturing activity due to the Japanese earthquake. From Real Time Economics:

The other overarching issue is the number of people who remain unemployed. Though the rate is dropping, there are still 13.5 million people who would like to work, but can't get a job and that doesn't include those who dropped out of the labor force. The broader U-6 unemployment rate that includes people marginally attached to the labor force continued to decline but still remains at 15.7%. So much slack in the job market means that employers don't feel as much pressure to increase wages.

Also keep in mind that many of the jobs being created are relatively low-wage, often not paying enough to cover basics like housing, utilities, food, health care, and transportation. From the NYT:

Workers who only finished high school have fared badly in the recession and the nascent recovery. According to an analysis of Labor Department data by Cliff Waldman, the economist at the Manufacturers Alliance, a trade group, the gap in unemployment rates more than doubled between those with just a high school diploma and those with at least a four-year college degree from the start of 2008 through February. For some of the least educated, Mr. Waldman fears that even low wages are out of reach. "Given the needs of a more cognitive and more versatile labor force," he said, "I'm afraid that those that don't have the education are going to be part of a structural unemployment story."

One more thing: March's U.S. jobless rate of 8.8 percent is way lower than L.A.'s February jobless rate of 12.6 percent.