This morning’s report on a drop in the nation’s unemployment rate last month and a 103,000-increase in jobs, is evidence that “the trend is clear,” President Obama just said: “the pace of hiring is beginning to pick up.”

He cited “12 straight months of private sector job growth” and a 1.3 million-increase in payroll employment over the past year as further evidence.

Still, Obama added, “we’ve got a big hole that we’re digging ourselves out of.”

“This was a brutal recession,” said the president, “the worst in our lifetimes.”

Obama was speaking at Thompson Creek Manufacturing, a Landover, Md.-based window company.

He also used the event to formally announce that he’s naming Gene Sperling to head the National Economic Council. Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.