January 2011 US Unemployment

Posted on February 4, 2011 by townsend

• In a snowy January, job numbers fail to take off, By Motoko Rich, February 4, 2011, New York Times: “The United States labor market is still having trouble achieving liftoff. Payrolls expanded by 36,000 jobs in January, a sharp decline from recent months and well below consensus forecasts. But the picture painted by the Department of Labor’s monthly snapshot of the job market was confounded by a drop in the unemployment rate to 9 percent, the lowest it has been since April 2009. That was mainly because that rate is calculated using a different survey than the payroll data. Payrolls expanded by 36,000 jobs in January, a sharp decline from recent months and well below consensus forecasts…”
• Unemployment rate plunges to 9% in January, but only 36,000 jobs added, By Neil Irwin, February 4, 2011, Washington Post: “Job creation came nearly to a halt in January, yet the unemployment rate plummeted to 9 percent, according to a new report that gives a muddled picture of the state of the labor market. Employers added 36,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday, far fewer than the 145,000 economists had forecast and the weakest month of job creation since September. The surprisingly low numbers suggested that last month’s snowstorms probably kept people from looking for work…”
• Job growth remains sluggish, though unemployment drops to 9%, By Don Lee, February 4, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “U.S. employers added a paltry 36,000 jobs in January, partly because of bad weather and partly because many employers remain reluctant to hire despite a strengthening economic recovery. Even so, the nation’s unemployment rate fell dramatically for the second month in a row, the government said Friday. It dropped to 9% in January, the lowest since April 2009. In December, the jobless figure was 9.4%, and it was 9.8% in November. Some analysts attributed the unusually large rate drop more to a statistical fluke than substantive gains in hiring…”