The unemployment rate dropped to 9.7 percent in January and the
economy lost an additional 20,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported on
Friday.
At the same time, the number of discouraged workers (who have
given up working for jobs so are no longer included in the
unemployment rate), rose again to 1.1 million in January, up from
734,000 a year earlier.
The November jobs numbers were adjusted upward to actually show
the economy added 64,000 jobs during that month (up from the
prior estimate of 4,000), but in December, the numbers were
revised downward to show a loss of 150,000 (compared to a lost of
85,000 in the original estimates). Taken together, that means
that the economy lost 5,000 more jobs over the final two months
of 2009 than previously thought.
Overall, this will be seen as good news for the White House, but
there will have to be a steady trend of improving job reports
between now and November for Democrats' political prospects to
brighten.
