The national economy added 308,000 jobs in March, more than triple the number experts expected for the month.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s report Friday, the surge in job growth this past month is the fastest in four years. The Department also revised its numbers for January and February of this year, doubling its initial estimate of 118,000 American jobs added to 205,000.

The numbers have been used as vindication by the Bush administration for their economic policies.

“The economy is on a path of growth because we acted,” President Bush said in Appleton Thursday, pointing to tax cuts and free trade policies as crucial remedies for the economic recession. “[T]he role of government is not to create wealth, but to create an environment that encourages economic vitality and growth, to create the grounds for the entrepreneurial spirit to flourish.”

Republicans say Bush’s controversial tax cuts are the stimulus behind the growing labor market.

“The tax cuts have been helpful in enabling owners in small business to invest in more labor,” said Frank Hennick, co-chair of Students for Bush.

Democrats, however, say Bush is in no position to pat himself on the back for his job creation record, pointing to the unemployment rate, which rose slightly from 5.6 percent to 5.7 percent in February.

“If I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t be clapping too loud yet,” said Don Eggert, co-chair of Students for Kerry. “One or two months doesn’t make up for three years of job loss.”

Eggert said the millions of jobs lost since Bush took office made short-term job growth largely insignificant. He predicted the economy would be a key issue in the election this fall, as the Kerry campaign plans to berate the president for presiding over an American economy that has undergone enormous job losses.

“The Bush administration’s job record has been atrocious,” Eggert said, contrasting the economy under President Bush with the robust job market during the 1990s while President Clinton was in office. “The Bush administration has given us enough ammunition for how bad it has been to ensure it will continue to be an issue.”

Republicans, however, say Kerry’s criticisms of Bush for massive job outsourcing and tax relief to the wealthy will increasingly fall on deaf ears as the economy recovers.

“If the economy continues to perform better and job growth continues to expand, the economy will become more of a Republican issue and less of a Democratic one,” Hennick said.

The economy promises to be a crucial issue for Wisconsinites in what is shaping up to be a tight presidential contest this fall. A recent Badger Poll, co-sponsored by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Capital Times, shows Bush leading Kerry 47 percent to 41 percent in Wisconsin, with independent candidate Ralph Nader at 5 percent.

In a head-to-head contest between Bush and Kerry, Bush captured 49 percent of support to Kerry’s 45 percent.

Joblessness remains a powerful issue in Wisconsin, which has lost more than 64,000 manufacturing jobs since March 2001. Manufacturing provides the state with nearly one in every five jobs.