Getting Back to Work: U.S. Employers Hiring, Labor Department Numbers Show
New jobs being added in manufacturing, health care and other industries.
April 1, 2011— -- American companies are adding workers at the fastest pace in five years, new government numbers showed today.
According to the Labor Department's March jobs report, 216,000 jobs were added, bringing unemployment down to 8.8 percent, the lowest rate in two years.
Across the country, the stories behind those numbers give new hope that the nation may finally be turning the corner on unemployment.
Watch "World News with Diane Sawyer" for more on this story tonight on ABC.
Just four months ago, for example, Sharon Walter was out of work, a victim of the recession. Now, she has found work at a Siemens plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, assembling steam turbine engines.
"To meet somebody and say, 'Well, I'm unemployed,' it takes something away from you," Walter said. "Every morning, I get up, I know I have someplace to go. I know I have a job to go to. I'm going to work hard, it's appreciated."
Walter is one of 200 skilled workers that Siemens trained and then hired this year, doing everything from driving forklifts to operating cranes.
Jobs Added in Variety of Industries
Data from the Labor Department shows that the optimistic numbers spread across a variety of industries. In March, 17,000 new jobs were added in manufacturing, 37,000 in health care, and 78,000 jobs in professional and business sectors. For private sector industries, there have now been 13 straight months of growth.
"I think fundamentally, our economy is in a much better place than it's been in many, many years," said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com.
Despite Good News, Many Still Struggling
At a job fair in Reno, Nevada, companies have been hiring new workers on the spot. And in Philadelphia, manufacturers like Boathouse Sports are starting to overtake their Asian competitors and start hiring again.
"As we look into the next quarter and beyond, we will be adding additional staff," said Douglas Tibbets, president and CEO of Boathouse Sports.
The news is good, but the reality for so many others remains grim. All told, 13 million Americans still don't have work. That figure is equivalent to the population of Illinois.
One of those Americans, Joseph Cappelluzzo, has been out of a job for two years. The father of five from Florida has gone to extreme measures to find work, even standing by the side of the road with a sign. Today, Cappelluzzo has worked enough odd jobs to buy a new house for his family, but he still has no stable employer.
"I'm working six and a half days a week," Cappelluzzo said. "I'd work in a bar. I would work in a Laundromat. I would do whatever it took to feed my family."