"We have much better momentum this year than we did last year," said Chris Varvares, senior managing director of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC. "We're a year further along in terms of improvement in lending terms and household balance sheets."

The St. Louis-based company last week raised its forecast for first-quarter growth to 3.1 percent from 2.6 percent, following news of a smaller-than-expected trade deficit in February. Gross domestic product increased by an annualized 0.4 percent in the first three months of 2011.

"The recovery may be finally establishing a somewhat firmer footing," Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William C. Dudley told business leaders in Syracuse, New York, on April 12. Even so, "it is still too soon to conclude that we are out of the woods, as underlined by the March labor-market release," he added.

The deceleration in payroll growth last month invited comparisons to last year, when an abrupt slowdown in job creation during April led to speculation in financial markets about an economic double-dip.

Looks Different

This year looks different, said Jonas Prising, president of the Americas at Milwaukee-based ManpowerGroup, the world's largest provider of temporary workers.

"The recovery seems more broad-based in the U.S.," he said. "I see it across industries and I see it across geographies." Risk also is lower, he added. "The external environment and the factors that affected it last year are a lot less severe this year."

Gasoline prices have risen about 20 percent since Dec. 31, compared with about 30 percent in the first four months of 2011, and they already may have peaked, according to Trilby Lundberg, publisher at Camarillo, California-based Lundberg Survey Inc., which polls filling stations weekly. The average price for regular unleaded gasoline was $3.91 a gallon on April 15, down from $3.94 on April 5, according to AAA, the nation's largest motoring group.

Even with this year's increase, retail sales in the U.S. rose more than forecast in March, showing consumers are weathering the jump. The 0.8 percent gain in sales was almost three times as large as projected and followed a 1 percent advance in February, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington.

CKE Restaurants Inc. hasn't seen "a significant impact" yet on its business from higher gas prices, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Puzder said on an April 11 teleconference call with stock-market analysts. The Carpinteria, California-based operator of the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. restaurant chains recorded net income of $88,000 in the 12 weeks ended Jan. 30 versus a loss of $5.05 million a year earlier.