Business: Sales Yes, Jobs No

More signs of business upturn appeared last week. Housing starts jumped a sharp 10%, marking the third straight monthly rise from the December low. There was a $3.5 billion pickup in personal income to an annual rate of $409.5 billion—the first gain since last October. Retail sales were still up 1% over February, to an $18.1 billion annual rate. Government economists have increased their estimates of the gross national product for the second quarter from a $502 billion-to-$503 billion annual rate to a range of from $505 billion to $510 billion.

Auto dealers were beginning to wear a trace of a...

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