The Labor Department reported some very good news on Friday, though it remains to be seen how this affects the hopes and dreams of Main Street. United States unemployment has dropped below 10 percent, to 9.7 percent.
The Labor Department said the economy shed 20,000 jobs in January 2010. In December 2009, the U.S. lost 150,000 jobs. November nubmers were revised to show a gain of 64,000, up from 4,000.
The bad news is that despite the revisions, payrolls data shows the U.S. economy has lost 8.4 million jobs since the beginning of the recession in December of 2007. That number is 1.4 million more jobs lost than initially reported.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the unemployment rate to rise slightly, to 10.1 percent. The 9.7 percent rate is the lowest in five months.
To underemployment rate fell to 16.5 percent last month. Underemployment includes those who where unable to find full-time positions, or positions that provided the number of hours they wanted to work. It also includes those who have stopped looking for work.
Additionally, the report notes that workers were also working longer hours. The hourly work week rose by an average of 6 minutes to 33.9 hours in January. While a small increase, analysts have said that an increasing work week, as well as temp hiring, would be positive signs necessary for a jobs recovery.
Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com
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