Unemployment Rate Drops to 8.3%, Lowest in Three Years

The nation’s unemployment rate dipped to 8.3 percent in January from 8.5 percent the month before as private employers added 257,000 jobs to their payrolls, the Labor Department reported earlier today.

Referring to the Labor Bureau’s better than expected numbers, the Wall Street Journal wrote:

“Both figures contradicted expectations of a slowdown in job growth to start the year. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a gain of 125,000 in payrolls and that the jobless rate would remain at 8.5%.”

The WSJ added that the additional number of U.S. jobs the last two months are a sign the American economy is growing at a time when some other economies across the globe, such as in Europe, have virtually stalled, or slowed, as is the case in China and India.

“It’s certainly supportive of the U.S. recovery and suggests that momentum is gathering pace,” said Brian Dolan, chief market strategist at FOREX.com in Bedminster, New York.

Even with the gains, however, the job market faces a long way back to full health. The economy still needs to add about 5.6 million jobs to get back to 2008 employment levels and there are still 12.8 million people out of work, though that is the fewest since the recession ended.

An additional 11 million are either working part-time but would prefer full-time work, or have stopped searching for jobs.

“You have an interesting situation where you have some permanent part-time workers,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo. “These people are in jobs and the jobs are not likely to become full-time.” He added: “That’s just a new flavor of the labor market.”

via Times
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