Job-growth numbers released this morning surprised analysts for a second straight month, and even last month's spectacular job growth was underestimated, reports USA Today:

Employers added 288,000 jobs to their payrolls in April as the nation's unemployment rate slipped to 5.6%, reinforcing hopes for a sustained turnaround in the jobs market that had lagged for so long. Payrolls have risen now for eight months, with 867,000 new jobs created so far this year, the Labor Department reported Friday.

March's blockbuster job numbers, meanwhile, were updated from 308,000 to 337,000 new jobs created, emphasizing the explosion in job growth. Ever since the last of Bush's economic plan was implemented in Q1 2003, the economy has turned around and now significant job growth has returned. Even the much-maligned manufacturing sector has grown, adding 21,000 jobs in April.

Kerry will shift focus from the economy to the war from this point forward as his perceived "big issue" slips away from him, but he won't escape his rhetoric on rolling back the growth engine of the Bush tax cuts. The lesson here, as in the 1980s, is this: Tax cuts work. Putting money back into the private economy puts investment capital where it belongs, which creates jobs and wealth. As we get closer to the election, this lesson will become more and more obvious, and the choice for economic prosperity more clear. Kerry supports tax increases; Bush supports tax cuts. We can see which strategy produces results.

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