The economy: 6 reasons to be cheerful

Homes are selling, jobs are sprouting, the iPad's giddy success is infectious. After a brutal economic winter, could spring finally be here?

There's plenty of reason to be hopeful about our economy.
(Image credit: Corbis)

Although the recession is still choking the US economy, optimism is seeping into the air. True, the jobless rate is hovering at 9.7 percent with over 11 million people still claiming unemployment benefits. True, the recession has been declared dead many times before, but an outbreak of good news is nothing to sneer at. Six reasons to be cheerful about the economy:

1. Jobs are proliferating: 162,000 new positions sprung up in March, the government announced on Friday. Even if you discount temporary census jobs, the addition of 123,000 private sector jobs marks the sharpest growth since May 2007.

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