The U.S. economy added 157,000 jobs in January, while the jobless rate edged up to 7.9 percent, from 7.8 percent in December 2012.
Economists had forecast 165,000 new jobs last month.
Perhaps more importantly were the significant upward revisions in the jobs numbers for November and December 2012.
According to the U.S. Labor Department, December’s jobs were revised upward from 155,000 to 196,000. And in November, new jobs added were revised even higher from 161,000 to 247,000.
Last month, the sectors which led the job growth were, retail trade (+32,600), construction (+28,000), health care and social assistance (+27,600), professional and business services (+25,000), and restaurants and bars (+17,100).
The sectors which continued to be a drag on the economy were government where 9,000 were lost in January, including 5,000 Federal government jobs and 4,700 in local government education.
The number of long-term unemployed remained steady at 4.7 million in January. Overall about 20 million people are currently unemployed or underemployed in the U.S.
Earlier this week, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said, “The U.S. economy is recovering but slowly,” and still experiencing “depression conditions.”
