The monthly jobs report is modestly good news for the economy. While the unemployment rate stayed at 6.7 percent, the economy created 192,000 new jobs and the job totals for January and February were upped by a combined 37,000. There was other good news too. Teenage unemployment declined from 21.4 percent to 20.9. But the unemployment rate for black teenagers (which tends to be volatile) rose from 32.4 to 36.1. That might reflect more black teenagers coming into the job market, looking for employment. The participation rate ticked up from 63 to 63.2 percent. But it’s still down from a year ago, when it was at 63.3.

The economy needs at least 250,000 new jobs a month to achieve a steady decline in the unemployment rate and we have had only three months with job creation that robust since the end of 2011. So the recovery remains sluggish.

The administration will undoubtedly be touting the fact that the economy now has more private-sector jobs (116.09 million) than at the former peak in January 2008, when there were 115.98 million private-sector jobs. But don’t look for the administration to take note that since January 2008, governments have shed a total of 535,000 jobs, so the national job total is still well below the pre-recession peak. It won’t make the point either that the civilian labor force is 2 million people larger than it was six years ago, and that the participation rate was then 66.2 percent as opposed to today’s 63.2 percent.

All in all, the new jobs report displays an economy that is growing but hardly soaring. It’s not yet morning in America, to coin a phrase, but there is, perhaps, a hint of pink in the east.