Pity the poor economist trying to create a coherent picture of the U.S. economy from the bits and pieces of the data jigsaw puzzle, the most recent piece of which was Friday’s jobs report. Non-farm payrolls were up 192,000 in February, and the estimates of the previous two months’ jobs growth were revised upward by a total of 58,000 jobs. The gains in the private sector, 222,000 jobs, offset 30,000 job cuts by cash-strapped state and local governments. The unemployment rate fell for the third straight month to a two-year low of 8.9 percent. Gains in the private sector were pretty much across-the-board, with the manufacturing, construction, and service sectors all recording job growth.

Which might explain why consumer confidence is at its highest level since February 2008, driven in part by a perception, and a correct one, that the job market is improving, and in part by a spate of good news. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing index in February was at its highest level since May 2004. The Federal Reserve Board’s survey of business conditions, the so-called Beige Book, turned up “solid growth in manufacturing production” in all districts save one.