Despite rosy predictions of 200,000 new jobs last month, only 146,000 were created. But the unemployment rate dropped to 5.2% because more people have given up looking for work (again).
From MSNBC:
"America's employers added 146,000 jobs in January -- a pickup from the previous month, but still a somewhat lackluster pace that underscores the slow recovery as the nation's labor market tries to get back to full throttle."
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"The latest snapshot of labor market activity, released by the Labor Department on Friday, also showed that the overall civilian unemployment rate dropped to 5.2 percent in January from 5.4 percent in December as people left the job market for any number of reasons.
The 146,000 gain in payrolls in January -- while the most since October -- still fell short of economists' forecasts for a more robust gain of around 200,000 for the month. Jobs gains for December came in at 133,000, down from an initial estimate of 157,000 just a month ago."