maybe you can uncross your fingers now. after the worst economic recovery ever recorded, there is new evidence that hiring is real and picking up speed. the the labor department told us today that employers added nearly a quart million jobs last month. and growth in the previous two months was stronger than first reported look at how far we've come. those bars way over on the less are the job losses from 2008, 2010. eight million jobs lost now three million are back. the unemployment rate didn't change last month. stil still high, still 8.3%. but but the rate didn't drop because, in a stronger economy, more people are jumping back into the labor pool. can all of this last? we asked anthony mason. >> >> reporter: at ring's end lumber and hardware in derian, connecticut, owner david campbell is growing increasingly confident about the economy. was there at point at which you said "i thing things are okay now"? >> about six months ago. >> reporter: so campbell is expanding his business. you're hiring? >> yes, we've hired in the last three months 14 people, 15 people. >> reporter: andy messenger is one of them. how do you feel having this job? >> very proud, very proud. >> >> reporter: messenger had been out of work about eight months. >> just keep going and looking. so some days it's a positive feeling. you just have to keep going. >> reporter: the economy has now added an average of 244,000 jobs a month since december. january's job growth revised up to 284,000 was the best in six years. years. economist beth ann bovino. >> it shows the economy is building momentum. that's a positive sign. however, just last year we saw healthy job numbers as well and it turned around quickly. so i wouldn't necessarily say we're out of the woods but it's certainly moving in the right direction. >> reporter: employers are feeling it, too. at ring's end lumber, david campbell has been buying new forklifts and trucks again. how much money have you put into new equipment? >> about a million dollars in the last year? >> reporter: really? so that says you feel better about this economy. >> yes. >> >> reporter: and campbell plans to open two more stores and add another 15 jobs. >> reporter: this is real then? >> we're feeling pretty good about where we're headed. >> reporter: another encouraging sign: while state and local governments are still cutting jobs, the pace is slowing sharply, sharply, just 6,000 were lost in february. >> pelley: anthony, thank you. even with these jobs that the economy is economy is creating, 12.8 million americans are still out of work and that is only part of the story. if you had people who have to settle for part-time work and the folks who stopped looking, the number is nearly double, 23.5 23.5 million. one other sign of recovery today-- this is the third anniversary of the day the stock market hit bottom. on on march 9, 2009, the dow closed a little over 6,547. today's close was 12,922. so in three years it's up 97%. in other words, it's nearly doubled. no president since f.d.r. has been reelected with an unemployment rate higher than 7.2%. there's really no chance that it will be lower than that on election day just eight months away. so can this president make history history again? norah norah o'donnell is at the white house tonight. >> r >> reporter: scott, he may be able to make history, certainly jobs report is good news and the current trend line is certainly good for his reelection chances. even though, as you said, he wi will likely face voters with the highest unemployment rate of any president in half a century. >> h >> hello, virginia! >> reporter: the president today chose the battleground state of virginia to promote today's job numbers as a sign the economy is building strength. >> but here's the good news: over the past two years our businesses have added nearly four million new jobs. >> reporter: the president's focus on job growth is a central ryrt of the message he will try to carry through to november to undercut republican claims that he's failed to turn around the economy >> i do not run for this office just to get back to where we were. i ran for this office... (cheers and applause) ... to g ... to get us to where we need to be. >> reporter: still, republicans like mitt romney target the fact that the unemployment rate has been stuck above 8% for almost mr. obama's entire presidency. >> my friends, the truth is 8% unemployment unemployment is not the best america can do. it's just the best this administration can do. >> reporter: the key, experts say, scott, is not just the state of the economy but how americans perceive it. and although there's been some improvement in consumer confidence, it's still far from where the president needs it to be. >> pelley: norah, thank you. in the race for the republican presidential nomination, kansas holds a caucus this weekend. hawaii, alabama, and mississippi vote on tuesday. the latest poll in mississippi shows a lead for newt gingrich over mitt romney and rick santorum. with all three still in the race it is possible that the republicans won't know who their nominee is before their national convention. nancy cordes has been looking into this. >> morning, y'all. (applause) >> reporter: mitt romney poured on newfound southern charm today in jackson, mississippi. >> i got started right with a biscuit and cheesy gritz. >> reporter: a strong showing here would widen romney's lead in the race to rack up delegates. romney currently has 396 delegates to rick santorum's 146. 146. newt gingrich trails with 97. ron paul has 38. santorum spent the day fighting back against romney's claim that there's no way he can catch up in the in the delegate count and he raised the possibility of taking the fight all the way to the republican convention in august where he would try to convince some of romney's delegates to change change their vote in what's known as a contested convention. >> everybody knows-- all these dele delegates are up for grab. there are very few that are hard committed. >> reporter: to avoid that scenario, romney must secure 1,144 delegates in the remaining 35 contests. many analysts believe that will be a difficult feat and that romney could come up short beca because most of the remaining states are states are not winner-take-all. they award their delegates proportionnally and there are four candidates splitting the vote. just today gingrich vowed to stay in the race all the way to the convention. where he-- like santorum-- would try to peel off delegates. >> there has been in your lifetime and in my lifetime no nominating process in the republican party that has any re resemblance to what we're now doing. >> reporter: would ant brokered convention just throw this race into total disarray? >> no. you end up with a nominee. and think about how exciting it would be and think about how the country wo country would have paid attention to the conversation. so that you could imagine a nominee coming out of there with enormous energy and momentum to defeat obama. >> reporter: the last time that a nominated contest went all the way to the convention was in 1976 1976 when republican ronald foagan nearly beat out jerry ford. ford pulled it out in the end, scott, only to be beaten by democrat jimmy carter. >> pelley: nancy, thank you. this sunday will be a year since the the earthquake and tsunami that devastated japan. remember how it felt when you saw these pictures for the first time? civilization swept away by the sea. at least 16,000 people were killed in an instant and even today more than 3,000 are missing. a year is a long time, but not to those people who lived it. we asked bill whitaker to take us back to one town where 3,000 died and more died and more than 500 disappeared. >> reporter: children's laughter as they leave school a delight to most parents. but for months after the tsunami, that sound brought nothing but pain to sayomi shito. her 12-year-old daughter was swept away by the waves. "why are they alive and my child had to had to die" she asked. naomi hiratsuka lost her daughter, too, 12-year-old koharu. she prays at the okawa school where her daughter and 72 other elementary school children died. she comes here everyday, she told us, even though this is a sad place. the students did as they'd been ta taught. when the earthquake struck, they ducked under their desks and when it was over they came out here to the playground into the open to be safe from wereshocks. they were all lined up here as instructed when the tsunami swept in, washing 74 children and ten teachers to their deaths "how could this happen" naomi hiratsuka wants to know. she channeled her grief and rage into searching for her daughter's body. she learned to operate a heavy excavator so she could search more places. even after her daughter's body was found, she continues to search for others. "nobody wants their child left in the mud" she said. heyomi shito focused her anger at the school. "why" she demanded "were the children not protected?" official told them it was their destiny. that so destiny. that so enraged parents of the dead children they did something not often seen in japan. the they shouted at school officials. in in this video of one heated meeting shot by a parent, this man slammed a shoe on the table. "that's all that's left of my daughter," he said. the only teacher to survive the his head in shame. sayomi sayomi shito has built a shrine with all of chisato's favorite things. it's been a year and she's still angry and in pain. naomi hiratsuka says she's trying to find the strength to move on. she searches for the words in english. >> my daughter is dreaming to be a a teacher. i have to go back. to teach. so that's my own goal. >> reporter: how long does it take a town to get over the loss of its children? or a mother the loss of a child? certainly more than a year. >> pelley: bill whitaker is joining us now on the japanese coast. bill, that ship behind you, it's up on the land, isn't it? >> reporter: scott, that ship is about a quarter of a mile from the ocean. this area used to be quite vibrant, but now much of it is a dead zone. the government says they have a five-year recovery plan, but most people most people don't think that's going to happen. as for the emotional recovery, that's likely to take much longer. >> pelley: bill, i remember when you were our japan correspondent a few years back. i wond i wonder, are you seeing any change in the spirit of the japanese people? >> well, japan is known as an orderly society and people often defer to authority. but as we but as we saw in ishinomaki, people not only are questioning authority but pushing back. that's a change. >> pelley: bill, thanks very much. a drilling rig goes up next to your house and there's nothing you can do about it. a flight attendant goes on a rant about the possibility of a crash. crash. and "on the road." steve hartman takes us to the cleaners when the "cbs evening news" continues. ready? as i'll ever be. break a leg! i used to love hearing that phrase... but not since i learned i have... postmenopausal osteoporosis and a high risk for fracture. i want to keep acting but a broken bone could change that. so my doctor and i chose prolia® to reduce my risk of fractures. prolia® is proven to help make bones stronger. proven to help increase bone density. i take prolia®. it's different. it's two shots a year. 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[ male announcer ] zyrtec-d®. behind the pharmacy counter. no prescription needed. and hello to "whoa, yum." use campbell's cream of chicken soup to make easy enchiladas, cheesy chicken & rice, and other chicken dishes that are oh...so...whoa. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. >> pelley: state officials from ohio said today a dozen small earthquakes in the past few years were an indestruct result of fracking, a method for drilling for natural gas. they said waste water injected deep undergrounds hit fault line lines and triggered the quakes. fracking has opened up big energy reserves in places where it was never profitable to drill before-- including the suburbs of cleveland. but south doane found out not everybody's happy about it. >> the well will go in that wooded area right over here. >> reporter: just two months after andrew berger and his wife christina bought this house they learned of a proposal from a company called gonzoil to drill a 4,0 oot oil and gas well next door near where their son elijah plays. >> we want him to be able to play outside and not have to worry about the potential effects of this gas well. and we don't know what it's going to do to the soil. i don't know what it does to the air quality. there are so many questions. >> reporter: wells have been popping up all over suburban cleveland. in the burger's 13 square mile town of broadview heights, there are 81 oil and gas wells drilled in the last six years. that's because a law in ohio allows oil companies to drill a well if the majority of neighbors want a well and the royalties from it. en energy companies just need 90% of landowners to sign on. >> this person signed up for the well by me. >> >> reporter: their propertys do need to connect in some way, though they can be up to 20 acres from the well itself. >> y >> you feel that you're under siege. siege. that your whole city is under siege. >> >> reporter: louie chodkiewicz fought and lost. >> >> since when can a group of neighbors say "we're going to take something you own." >> reporter: is this pitting neighbor versus neighbor? >> certainly. there's people we don't talk to now. >> reporter: wells must be 150 feet from homes, still chodkiewicz says he can hear this one from his bedroom. it it switches on at 6:00 a.m. >> two wells there, another well there, one more there and this one right here. there are five right now that r pumping. >> reporter: he war rise his share in the well's profit-- at least $200 a month-- will not offset what tax assessors estimate would be a 12% hit to his property value. would you want a home would you want a home with one of these in the back sglard >> i have a home with one of these in the backyard. >> reporter: doug gonzalez who owns gonzoil says royalty money from his company's wells is pouring into this county. $2.4 million last year. >> the >> the majority of the people would like to see it happen so the state decided that's the best sufficient way to develop the reservoir so that's what we do. reporter: >> reporter: the bergers say they'll take their battle to the state oil and gas commission. they may not be able to hold their ground-- even though they own it. seth doane, cbs news, broadview heights, ohio. >> pelley: there was panic on a plane when a flight attendant told passengers the jet was going to crash. that's next. ohhh my head, ohhh. 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"on the road" with steve hartmann is next. i stepped on the machine, and it showed me the pressure points on my feet and exactly where i needed re support. then, i got my number. my tired, achy feet affected my whole life. until i found my number. i tried the free dr. scholl's foot mapping center. in two minutes, i got my foot map and custom number. i'm a 440. that matched up to the dr. scholl's custom fit orthotic inserts with the right support and cushioning i need. i am a believer. i'm a believer! i'm a believer. find your closest foot mapping center at drscholls.com. >> pelley: finally tonight, among the tourist attractions in pocatello, idaho, are a zoo, a natural history museum and a performing arts center. but what got steve hartman's attention is a cultural exhibition you won't find anywhere else "on the road." >> reporter: hard to believe, 17,000 museums in america and, until now, no one ever thought mosuild this one-- the most important one. >> plain museums, train museums, usmmer museums. what is the most important word in the world? clean. >> reporter: yes, he said clean. don aslett built, paid for, and now vacuum it is world's first museum dedicated to the history and promotion of cleaning. it's an acre of old brooms, dust pans, everything under the sun. and surprisingly, unlike many of the exhibits... >> isn't that unique? >> reporter: ...this museum doesn't suck wind. onese of the most unique ones is the guy sits in a chair and vacuums. >> reporter: i found it fascinating. >> you went back and forth like this. and the woman woman vacuums. >> reporter: unfortunately, others are less amused. >> this is a cleaning museum. everybody loves to clean, right? >> reporter: a home work museum would go over better. >> hard sell. l.rd sell. >> reporter: so why bother? for don, it's a mission that began almost 60 years ago. in college he started varsity house cleaning, a single-truck business that eventually grew into a $250 million a year company. he along the way, he says he learned something about people-- that cleanliness carries over into all aspects of your life. >> how you clean will be how you live. > reporter: you know what? >> reporter: that's just the way it is. >> reporter: he has a point. >> i'm not really the cleaning type. i'm kind of the lazy type. justporter: but don says just show kids how fun and rewarding cleaning can be. >> i want you to wash this sock. >> report