Have we turned the corner?

The Obama administration seized on a bit of good economic news Friday to argue that's its economic policies were pushing the country toward recovery.

But it's still far too early for dancing in the streets -- especially in Nevada, where few positive national trends have yet to make their mark.

In the largest gain in almost three years, the U.S. economy added 162,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in March. While temporary Census Bureau hiring by the federal government did help the numbers, private-sector job growth was the driving factor in the improvement.

"Even after adjusting for the 48,000 temporary census workers hired and a rebound effect from the February snowstorms, this number suggests an increase in underlying payroll employment," Christina Romer, the head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in a statement.

Other good signs: Construction companies added 15,000 jobs, a small number but a baby step forward in a sector that lost 72,000 jobs in the past year.

"We are beginning to turn the corner," said President Barack Obama. "This month, more Americans woke up, got dressed and headed to work at an office or factory or storefront."

Fine. But let's not forget unemployment remains at almost 10 percent and that a record 6.5 million Americans have been out of work for more than half a year.

In addition, many employers remain wary of expanding or adding workers given the uncertainty of the president's economic agenda and the nation's fiscal condition as a whole. The president has just pushed through a health care package that will ultimately impose massive costs on the country and he still dreams of imposing draconian new energy costs on the economy in the name of fighting global warming.

These are not policies that encourage entrepreneurship.

In addition, the president's effort to attack the soaring deficit will almost certainly include higher taxes on wealthy Americans and possibly even a brand new Value Added Tax, both of which will help seize up the engine of recovery.

Good news on the March job numbers? They're definitely an improvement. But unless the president abandons his goal of turning the United States into a fiscally unsustainable European cradle-to-grave social welfare state, the long term remains a vital concern.