Two from Real Time Economics, first up, the headline story:
The economy added 157,000 jobs in January and the unemployment
rate ticked up to 7.9%. Economists are still digesting today’s numbers,
but here are four initial takeaways:
Slow and steady: Job growth slowed in January, but
at a bit better than 150,000 new jobs, the overall pace of growth stayed
relatively steady. The private sector drove the growth, as it has for
most of the past two-plus years, adding 166,000 jobs while the
government cut payrolls 9,000. The recent pace of growth hasn’t been
enough to make a dent in the unemployment rate, which rose slightly and
has been more or less stuck since the end of the summer.
Huge revisions: The real news in today’s report may
not be in January’s figures but in December and November’s, which were
revised upward by a combined 127,000 jobs. November’s jobs growth now
registers a fairly impressive 247,000 net gain in jobs (256,000 in the
private sector), and employers added 196,000 jobs in December despite
fears of the Fiscal Cliff. The significance of the revisions goes beyond
their sheer size: The Labor Department’s initial estimates often lag
behind shifts in the job market, showing too little growth when hiring
is speeding up and too much when it is slowing down. So today’s
revisions could be a sign that the labor market is gaining steam....MORE
And their follow-up:
Don’t Dismiss Rise in Unemployment
