In March, residual signs of a market turnaround continued as unemployment held steady at 9.7%. The total number of jobs gained was 162,000, a dramatic raise since the market began shedding jobs almost two years ago.  About a third of the added jobs come from the U.S. census, which has taken many employees under its wing full time, albeit for just a couple of months.

In order to sustain growth, the job market must create at least 100,000 jobs every month. The government predicts that the unemployment rate will stay roughly in the nines all year, and that it will take until 2016 for the unemployment rate to drop back to the pre-recession rate of around 5%.

Although the unemployment rate is finally dropping, it is still 1.8% higher than it was last year at this time. Economists, however, say that this is a good sign of economic recovery. The report also showed that the average rate of pay dropped .1 both for all employees to $22.47 and for nonsupervisor employees to $18.90.

Meanwhile, President Obama is in Charlotte, N.C. today to promote his job creation plan as Democrats prepare for midterm elections this November. Congress is attempting to submit a bill that will promote job growth by offering tax breaks to small businesses that begin hiring.