‘Boffo! Blockbuster! Coming In Red-Hot!’ CNN Anchor Raves About Jobs Report — Gushes ‘No Recession in Sight!’

CNN anchor John Berman and correspondent Matt Egan gushed over a March jobs report with exclamations like “Boffo!” and “Blockbuster!” and “No recession in sight!”

On Friday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a March jobs report that saw 303,000 jobs added, blowing away expectations:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 303,000 in March, and the unemployment rate changed little at 3.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, government, and construction.

…

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised up by 27,000, from +229,000 to +256,000, and the change for February was revised down by 5,000, from +275,000 to +270,000. With these revisions, employment in January and February combined is 22,000 higher than previously reported.

Economists predicted that the economy would gain 212,00 jobs in the March survey, but at 8:30 on Friday morning, the actual report blew past that figure.

On Friday’s edition of CNN News Central, Berman and Egan excitedly rattled off the news:

JOHN BERMAN: Making news. Boffo new numbers just in from the new jobs report! Way higher than expected! The unemployment rate dropped. No recession in sight!

And just in, the Israeli military released its initial findings into the strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen Aid workers, where the IDF is placing the blame. I’m John Berman with Kate Baldwin and Sara Snyder. This is CNN newsroom.

All right. Breaking news. Coming in hot, red hot! The economy added 303,000 jobs in March. Way, way higher than expectations. CNN’s Matt Egan is with us now. Matt, give us a sense of these numbers and what it means.

MATT EGAN: Jon, this is another blockbuster jobs report! And I got to give you credit because about an hour ago, off camera, you had jokingly said, well, what if it comes in at 300,000? You almost nailed it! 303,000 jobs added last month.

This is 50% more than expected. It is an acceleration from what we saw in February, the unemployment rate ticking down to 3.8%. You know, these really are very impressive numbers.

And this jobs market just continues to defy expectations both in a short term basis coming in hotter and hotter than expected. But also when you zoom out, this jobs market is so much better than people thought. A lot of economists reasonably expected that the Fed’s war on inflation, spiking interest rates was going to cause the unemployment rate to go up, was going to cause job loss, and that just has not happened.

If anything, this jobs market is heating up. And some economists are already they’re baffled by these numbers. One economist just put out the subject line wow. And writing quote the data leave us borderline speechless. Some context around these numbers.

We’re now looking at more than three straight years of monthly job gains. That is the fifth longest streak on record, and the unemployment rate is now below 4% for 26 months in a row. That is the longest streak since the late 60s and early 1970s under LBJ and Richard Nixon. So, John, listen, you can’t better bet against this jobs market because it just continues to defy expectations.

JOHN BERMAN: Oh, look at that graphic that we have right here. That’s what you want to see. Just the jobs unemployment going down down down down. Job growth up up up and up. Again. Thank you very much for that.

Watch above via CNN News Central.

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