| Monthly jobs report blows past expectations; France to enter month-long shutdown with Covid-19 on the rise. Tonight's Sentences was written by Greg Svirnovskiy. | | | | | | | 916,000 new jobs in March | | | | | Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images | | - Employers added 916,000 jobs in March, a number far greater than the economist-predicted total of 675,000 jobs, making March the strongest month for job creation since Summer 2020. [CNBC / Jeff Cox]
- The final numbers are expected to accelerate the US economy's recovery from its Covid-19 induced recession, a comeback expected to be strengthened amid increasing vaccination rates and spending from the third round stimulus passed in early March. [Axios / Courtenay Brown and Felix Salmon]
- Nearly 500,000 of the jobs created in March went to women, many of whom were forced to leave the workforce after schools and child care centers shut down last year. The pandemic had disproportionately affected women in employment, but they now constitute under half of all displaced workers since last year. [Washington Post / Eli Rosenberg]
- The overall US unemployment rate is now at 6 percent, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, down from a high of 14.8 percent in April 2020, the first full month of the Covid-19 pandemic in America. [Al Jazeera / Kaelyn Forde]
- But full economic recovery is not yet in sight. Workers of color continue to see particularly elevated unemployment rates, and overall employment is lagging 8.4 million jobs below peak levels from February 2020 and over 4 million people have been unemployed since at least September. [US Bureau of Labor Statistics]
- Still, today's jobs report is expected to serve as a touchstone for a strong second quarter, characterized by increased consumer spending, in part thanks to federal stimulus programs. On Thursday, the S&P 500 climbed past 4,000 points for the first time in history. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq enjoyed similar jumps. [CNBC / Patti Domm]
- Covid-19 is the wild card in this, however. If nationwide infection rates continue to rise, some states and businesses may be forced to roll back reopenings, undoing the economic gains made this month in a vein similar to last winter. [New York Times / Ben Casselman]
| | | Macron heeds calls from experts, shuts down France | | - After months spent ignoring calls from health officials to reimpose a nationwide lockdown in France, President Emanuel Macron finally did so on Wednesday. The move came amid slower-than-expected vaccination rates and the rise of a variant-fueled third wave of infections throughout Europe. [New York Times / Norimitsu Onishi and Constant Méheut]
- All schools in France will be closed for the next three weeks, and domestic travel will be banned for a month to curb accelerating Covid-19 rates. The government is also keeping in place a nationwide 7 pm curfew. [France 24]
- The decision to shut down schools was especially disappointing for Macron, who had exempted schools from the country's most recent lockdown in November. The government had attempted to avoid a national shutdown by focusing on regional restrictions. But infection rates continued to increase.[Associated Press / Sylvie Corbet]
- "We did everything we could to make these decisions as late as possible, when they became strictly necessary. That is now," Macron said in a televised address Wednesday before announcing the new lockdown. [Bloomberg / Ania Nussbaum]
- Public support for the new restrictions has been on the rise in recent days in light of a French Hospital Federation warning last week that hospitals nationwide faced an "unprecedented violent shock" if cases weren't curbed rapidly. [BBC]
- Over 5,000 patients are in critical care in France, which has seen its daily Covid-19 infections double since February. And while the UK recorded just 4,000 daily cases this week, France saw a high of 59,000. [Reuters / Sudip Kar-Gupta and Geert De Clercq]
- The next presidential election is a year away, and many suspect Macron had been resistant to lockdown efforts to stave off the momentum of far-right opponent Marine Le Pen. Given growing support for a national lockdown, it's unclear whether Macron's efforts will help or hurt him in 2022. [The Guardian / Philippe Marliere]
| | | | | | | A deadly incident at the Capitol on Friday again raises questions about security measures. | | | [Vox / Ella Nilsen, Alex Ward, and Li Zhou] - Major League Baseball kicked off its 2021 season Thursday. The New York Mets and Washington Nationals did not play: Their respective season start times were pushed back due to Covid-19 concerns within Nationals' clubhouse. [Chicago Tribune / Howard Fendrich]
- Virginia became the first southern state to pass a voting rights act since the Supreme Court repealed the national Voting Rights Act in 2013. The new law requires all election-related changes be approved by the state's attorney general, and racial discrimination in legislating voting is expressly prohibited. [New York Times / Reid J. Epstein and Nick Corasaniti]
- Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte today survived a vote of no confidence in the Dutch Parliament. Rutte stood accused of lying and freezing political opponents out of Parliament while attempting to form a new coalition government. He is now on track to become the Netherlands' longest-serving PM. [BBC].
- As vaccination rates in America have quickened, they've grown "unacceptably slow" in the European Union, according to Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO's European director. Just 4 percent of people across the continent are fully vaccinated. [VOA News]
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