The jobless rate in the U.S. fell to 8.3 percent in January, a decline of 0.2 percent from the month before and the lowest level in three years, the Labor Department said Friday.
Employers added 257,000 jobs in January, the greatest number in the past nine months and up more than 20 percent of the number of jobs added in December.
Overall, private sector jobs have been added for 23 straight months, for a total of 3.7 million payroll jobs over that period. Over the last 12 month, 2.2 million net private sectors were added.
Almost every sector experienced accelerated growth. Sectors with net job increases in December included professional and business services (+70,000), manufacturing (+50,000), leisure and hospitality (+44,000), health care and social assistance (+29,700), and construction (+21,000). Government lost 14,000 jobs.
Despite the falling unemployment rate, more than 14 million Americans who want a job are unable to find one.
