A pretty good summary of the numbers:
Seasonally adjusted job-creation figures announced this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a far weaker than expected gain of 36,000 nonfarm payroll jobs for January. This was far lower than the consensus of experts surveyed by Bloomberg last Friday and by Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. But the official unemployment rate – U3 – fell to 9 percent, making January the 21st month of joblessness at or above 9 percent, the longest period since records began in 1948.
The number of officially unemployed fell to 13.9 million. An alternative measure that includes the underemployed and a portion of discouraged workers, fell to 16.1 percent. The labor force participation rate fell to 64.2 percent, its lowest level in nearly 27 years. The number of Americans without work for six months or more jobless fell to 6.2 million. The employment-population ratio held steady at 58.4 percent.
Nothing to brag about.
