The Hill News

White House press secretary Jay Carney made use of his Twitter account for the first time in 21 days to promote Friday's new jobless numbers.

Carney took to his official Twitter account, which he inherited from Robert Gibbs, his predecessor who created the account, to talk up the March figures showing a drop in the unemployment rate to 8.8 percent, and a total 230,000 private sector jobs created last month.

Carney tweeted:

good econ news today: 230K new private sector jobs created in march. that's 1.8 mil in last 13 months. http://is.gd/Dcnepy,

Carney's been more scattershot in his use of Twitter to deliver news and advance the administration's messaging. Gibbs would drop off at times, too, though Carney's predecessor was known for breaking more news and addin! g the occasional tidbit.

Carney took over the account on Feb. 28, and between that time and today, he posted 14 tweets. He last tweeted on March 10.

After making his return to Twitter on Friday, Carney added a few followups on today's jobless numbers.

.@CriedTilLaughed. 216K is net job growth because of layoffs at state/local government layoffs. 230K is total private sector growth.

Unemployment rate dropped to 8.8% -- still much too high, but down a! full point in four months, the steepest decline since 1984.
big point: economy is showing signs of strength, and it's imperative we find common ground and not do anything to jeopardize recovery.