If the Commerce Department’s first-quarter GDP report that came out on Wednesday was bad news for the administration, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report this morning is good news.

The economy added 288,000 new jobs last month and the February and March figures were upped from previous estimates to 222,000 and 203,000 respectively. The 288,000 figure represents the largest number of jobs added in a month since January 2012, and the second biggest since recovery began in June 2009. The statistics for most subgroups moved in the right direction as well. Black unemployment, for instance, fell from 12.4 percent to 11.6 percent.

But the big news is that the unemployment rate fell a whopping four-tenths of a percent to 6.3 percent, the lowest since September 2008, just before the financial crisis struck with full force. Economists had been expecting a drop to 6.6 percent. However, part of that drop can be attributed to a sharp drop in the total labor force, which shrank by 806,000. The labor force participation rate also fell by 0.4 percent to a dismal 62.8 percent. It was 66 percent in September 2008. If it were still at 66 percent the unemployment rate would be far higher than it is.

If the trend of the last three months continues, one would expect more people to enter the labor force and that could push the unemployment rate back up for a while.

All in all, the Obama White House is happy this morning. Well, at least about the employment statistics if nothing else.