March showing job growth

The Employment Security Department is reporting a slight rise in the jobless rate for March. Presumably some of these jobs are temporary census jobs. (Employing census workers contributed to a huge jump in employment numbers nationwide.) Nevertheless, it's still good news.

From the press release:

March job gains marked the second time in three months the state has posted positive job numbers. That’s on the heels of 13 consecutive months of job losses stretching from the end of 2008 to the end of 2009.

In addition, mortgage delinquencies fell in March for the second month. (Hat tip: Wall Street Journal (requires subscription).)

For some commentary on this data, try Barbara Kiviat's post at TIME.

This could be a minor but important indicator of the housing market. Buyers and homeowners are starting to remodel again. Even where there is less demand, that decrease is, er, decreasing.

The article in RIS Media cites data from the most recent American Institute of Architects’ Home Design Trends Survey.

You might enjoy reading the lists the five most popular bathroom and kitchen remodels, too.

In fact, here are the five most popular kitchen products and features:

-Recycling center, a designated place to put cans, papers, etc., which could be in the form of a nook or even part of the lower cabinetry
-Larger pantry space
-Renewable flooring materials
-Renewable countertop materials
-Computer area/recharging stations, dedicated to such tasks as recharging laptops, cell phones and PDAs.

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