] Although the labour market has clearly been improving,
] companies may still feel there is an abundance of workers
] to draw on. By this stage in an economic recovery, the US
] economy would typically generate 300,000 jobs a month.
]
] But even April's bumper gain of 274,000 jobs failed to
] match that. The monthly average for the past year has
] been just 181,000. The labour force participation rate
] though rising recently to 66 per cent is still well down
] on its peak of 67.3 per cent in April 2000.

There is a lot of journalist fluff in this article. Scan for numbers. The job growth last month beat estimates, but that doesn't mean it was particularly good. If numbers like that are sustained for a while it would be a positive sign. However, there are still fewer jobs in the economy today then there were in March of 2001.

FT.com / World - Balance of power shifts to the employers