First the good news. The American job market has truly, really, finally, unquestionably shifted into a higher gear. The 295,000 jobs the nation added in February was comfortably above expectations, drove the unemployment rate down two-tenths of a percentage point to 5.5 percent, and completed the best stretch for job creation in nearly 15 years. Over the last six months, the nation has added just shy of 300,000 jobs a month, the strongest number since the six months ended in March 2000. This time a year ago, the economy was locked in a yearslong tepid recovery that involved adding 2 to 2.5 million jobs a year. That ... (full story)