Last week's jobs report was a blow to "Trumphoria," according to a Fitsnews LLC article. "The initial enthusiasm associated with the election of Donald Trump … clearly doesn’t appear to be translating into sustained demand."

Manufacturing jobs were unchanged in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, while construction employment increased by 6,000, following a gain of 59,000 in February. As our complex economy works to regain its footing, the report tempered expectations that President Trump would immediately make the U.S. economy great again.

"Many companies bought into the Trump rhetoric and kicked-off production early in the quarter, only to slow again as that demand has yet to materialize," according to analysts at SouthBay Research in the Fitsnews article.

Respondents to recent MDM-Baird surveys gushed over the promise of better days with Trump in office, but the only mention of the new president in the first-quarter survey, which we will be publishing in the April 25 issue of MDM Premium, was this: "The Trump administration will take almost the entire year to get business to a better course."

The economic bump that many expected to begin Jan. 20 and continue for the next four years hasn't quite happened, but a handful of recent reports indicate that the country's fortunes are turning – something economists have long been forecasting for 2017.

Recent examples of slow and steady improvement include:

• February U.S. manufacturing technology orders totaled $300.5 million, up 1.7 percent from February 2016.
• New orders for manufactured goods in February increased 1 percent to $476.5 billion.
• February exports increased and imports decreased, resulted in a smaller goods and services deficit.
• Construction spending in February was 3 percent above the same month a year ago.
• And the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index increased in March.