Here’s the line: “Honey, good news. I got the job.” Now repeat that 243,000 times. That’s one way to appreciate the news of a surge in hiring last month. The government’s monthly unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that the unemployment rate dropped from 8.5 to 8.3 percent in January. Randall Wray teaches economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He says that with 24 million Americans looking for a full-time job, if we keep at this current pace, it’ll take a decade to put them all back to work. And the Daily Pulse is flat on news the federal government collected less than half as much in corporate tax receipts in 2011…a 40-year low.

Robert Pavlik, the chief market strategist at Banyan Partners in New York, says he’s getting calls, emails and even letters from clients  asking if they can get in on the $75 billion Facebook IPO. “Everybody and his mother wants a piece of this deal,” says Pavlik. “The honest to God answer is that you’re probably not going to get some unless you’ve been doing a tremendous amount of commission business with one of these big institutional-type firms.” The Pulse is up today on news that the American worker is finally running out of productivity bandwidth, which could mean it’s time for companies to hire if they want to increase output.

In January, ADP says there were 170,000 people added to payrolls, slightly underthe 182,000 experts predicted. In addition, ADP revised its strong December number of 325,000 down significantly to 292,000. Joel Prakken is the senior managing director of Macroeconomic Advisors, the group that issues the report with ADP.  He says, “In the fairy tale, slow and steady wins the race, but I wish we were running a little bit faster here in terms of job creation.” And the Daily Pulse is down today on news that 28 percent of Americans are currently underwater on their homes.

Pessimism about jobs + higher gas prices + decreasing home values = lower confidence. None of this fits well with the tapestry experts have been trying to weave that things are “slowly” on the upswing. Chairman of the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center, Daniel Levy, says he’s extremely bullish on the U.S economy long-term, but for 2012 he’s a bear, watching for signs of the U.S. possibly slipping back into recession. And the Daily Pulse is up today on news that debt collectors have been getting some unnerving calls lately, too. Theirs are coming from the FTA who is chasing illegal collection practices.

Armed with a treaty on curbing budgets and a huge bailout fund, European leaders held a half-day summit in Brussels today to restore order to the eurozone, and it worked. EU leaders walked away with a signed agreement that could help prevent a future debt crisis in the region. But Greece’s financial affairs are still up in the air, and experts like Matthias Matthijs, a professor of political economy at both the Johns Hopkins and American Universities, say its all about the conditions of austerity. And the Daily Pulse is up today on news that 2011 may have been the year that charitable giving may have returned to pre-recession levels.

We all hear about economic indicators all the time, but perhaps we don’t question them as much as we should. Take gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the growth of the economy. After a number of incremental but positive indicators that have come out in the past couple of months — the so-called “green shoots” — today’s fourth quarter GDP was a reminder that our economy is still very fragile. And on the Marketplace Daily Pulse, union membership in the U.S. has plateaued.

Durable good purchases are a sign that businesses are getting ready to grow. Those orders were up three percent in December, beating analysts expectations. We’re seeing other economic “green shoots” as well, including falling unemployment, rising consumer sentiment and increases in manufacturing. Some would say you have all the makings of a country on a path to recovery. Really? Doug Roberts from Channel Capital Research tells us how he distinguishes the truth from the hype. And the Daily Pulse was down today on news that only 23 percent of Americans say they trust the U.S. financial system.

President Obama’s State of the Union address last night made one thing clear: the financial sector has been a pretty severe disappointment to the American economy. The President said, “No bailouts, no handouts, no cop-outs,” aimed, in part, at banks. He praised companies like General Motors and Master Lock as examples of the country’s potential. Memo received, Mr. President: Manufacturing is going to get us out of the economic hole the banks dug for us. The Daily Pulse is up today on news that U.S. students will be eating healthier school lunches moving forward. The USDA announced new menu guidelines today that include more fruit, veggies and whole grains.

This week, for the first time, the Fed will no longer be an impenetrable monolith. It’s going to be upfront. Straightforward. Transparent, even. As of the end of its meeting tomorrow, the Fed will let its 17-member committee publicly reveal what they think will happen to interest rates in the coming months and years. Will this be good news for the nervous markets? Andy Brooks, head of U.S. equity trading at T. Rowe Price, says in spite of some signs of growth in the U.S. economy, he’s expecting to hear caution coming out of the meeting tomorrow. The Daily Pulse is up today on news that the bi-annual Augmented Misery Index is indicating Americans are feeling better about their finances.