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Unemployment drops to 9%, for hire truck picks up 3,200 jobs

WASHINGTON  — The unemployment rate dropped sharply last month to 9 percent, the lowest level in nearly two years. But the economy generated only 36,000 net new jobs, the fewest in four months.

The January report illustrates how job growth remains the economy's weakest spot, even as other economic indicators point to a recovery that is strengthening.

For-hire trucking picked up 3,200 jobs for the month. The preliminary January number for trucking is better than the same month a year ago by 21,500 jobs, but the current total is 195,300 jobs shy of the industry peak in early 2007 — a slip of 13 percent.

Total transportation and warehousing employment fell by 38,000 in January, reflecting a sharp decline among couriers and messengers, which lost 45,000 jobs. Couriers and messengers had an unusually large job gain in December, followed by layoffs of a similar magnitude in January, the Labor Department noted.

Friday's report offered a conflicting picture on hiring. Unemployment fell because the Labor Department's household survey determined that more than a half-million people without jobs found work. The department conducts a separate survey of businesses, which showed tepid job creation. The two surveys sometimes diverge.

Severe winter weather likely reduced the number of jobs created. Harsh snowstorms last month cut into construction employment, which fell by 32,000, the most since May. Transportation and warehousing also fell by 38,000 — the most in a year.

In one bright spot, manufacturing added 49,000 jobs, the most since August 1998.

The unemployment rate has fallen by eight-tenths of a percentage point in the past two months. That's the steepest two-month drop in nearly 53 years.

But part of that drop has occurred as many of those out of work gave up on their job searches. When unemployed people stop looking for jobs, the government no longer counts them as unemployed.

The number of people unemployed fell by more than 600,000 in January to 13.9 million. That's still about double the total that were out of work before the recession began in December 2007.

The January report also includes the government's annual revisions to the employment data, which showed that fewer jobs were created in 2010 than previously thought. All told, about 950,000 net new jobs were added last year, down from a previous estimate of 1.1 million. The economy lost about 8 million jobs in 2008 and 2009.

In the past three months, the economy generated an average of 83,000 net jobs per month. That's not enough to keep up with population growth.

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