Bad weather put a damper on hiring in January as the U.S. economy added just 36,000 jobs. Still, the unemployment rate dropped to 9 percent from December’s 9.4 percent, but that may be because many job-seekers simply gave up looking. –JCL
The BBC:
US unemployment fell in January to 9% from 9.4% a month earlier, the Department of Labor said.
It is the second such monthly fall, after unemployment fell from a rate of 9.8% in November.
But despite this, the number of jobs created, at 36,000, was far below the expected 140,000.
The poor figure may have been due to blizzards during January, which are thought to have kept many workers at home.
