ADP employment report shows a slight gain in jobs for March

The latest ADP National Employment Report out this morning says that "Nonfarm private employment increased 8,000 from February to March 2008 on a seasonally adjusted basis." The report also revised the 23,000 decline in February to a narrower decline of 18,000. I would not get too excited by this very modest improvement, but at a minimum it strongly suggests that the U.S. economy is not in the middle of a traditional recession.

Yes, it is still very possible that the U.S. economy "may slip into a recession" (you can quote me), but we do not appear to be "there" yet, and I still think there is a good chance we can avoid an outright recession. Meanwhile the economy remains in a significant slowdown.

-- Jack Krupansky