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Not much reaction so far this morning to the March employment report, which was released today and says the economy added a net 216,000 jobs in the third month. That's a bit better than expected. The unemployment rate fell from 8.9 percent to 8.8 percent. Not a big deal. The jobless rate is too high to support anything but a sluggish recovery.
Hourly earnings were unchanged in March and in February, according to the Labor Department. The average workweek was unchanged, at 34.3 hours.
Bond yields -- for both mortgages and 10-year Treasuries -- blipped upward a small amount this morning. Had the economy grown by half a million jobs in March, mortgage rates would have risen noticeably. But with net job creation at 216,000, the bond markets shrug.
