In America

Another positive month of BLS data

• 243,000 jobs added to the national economy in January.
• National unemployment rate drops for the fifth straight month.
• Dow increases to its highest level since May 2008.

These were just a few of the headlines that gripped the front pages of newspapers throughout the nation on February 3rd after the BLS released January’s “The Employment Situation” report – arguably the most positive jobs findings that have been recorded since Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009.

Last month, the national unemployment rate was 8.3 percent, slightly lower than December’s rate of 8.5 percent and nearly one percent less than it was last summer. In addition, the rate has now declined for five consecutive months, an employment feat which has not been accomplished since 1994.

Of equal importance, the national economy has added jobs for 23 straight months, as the number of unemployed individuals declined by 300,000 in January, in comparison to December’s findings.

Simply, the report absolutely shocked thousands of economists, many of whom had predicted that the unemployment rate would begin to increase once again, up to 8.6 percent, while only 150,000 to 155,000 jobs would be added – approximately 100,000 less than was actually reported by the BLS.

“It’s very unusual to get an unambiguous job report; usually you have a lot of cross currents in the data,” said Mark Zandi, Moody’s Analytics’ chief economist. “This [month’s report was] unambiguous. Everything [was] good.”

Perhaps the most positive aspect of January’s jobs report was the fact that job growth was very extensive, as nearly every private sector industry hired thousands of workers.

Manufacturing job growth – a strong sign that the economy is regaining momentum – was especially noticeable, as 50,000 jobs were generated. Since December 2010, 14 percent of all new jobs have been created within the manufacturing industry.

In addition, the BLS announced that 157,000 jobs had been generated last November, 57,000 more than had been originally reported. December’s jobs report was also revised, as 3,000 more jobs were added to the economy during the month. Overall, 1.82 million jobs were created throughout 2011.

Finally, as a further sign of economic recovery, stocks increased considerably on February 3rd. Nasdaq reached its highest level in more than a decade, while the Dow reached its highest level since May 2008.