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Employers added 243,000 jobs in January

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Employers added 243,000 jobs in January, an increase over the 203,000 jobs added in December, the U.S. Department of Labor reported on Friday.

Hiring was stronger than expected and many economists were surprised.

Private sector job growth was widespread with large employment gains in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing. However, government employment did not change much during January.

At the same time, the jobless rate for January fell to 8.3 percent, marking the fifth consecutive month of declines and taking unemployment to its lowest rate since February 2009.

Manufacturing added 50,000 jobs in January.

Private sector businesses have consistently added jobs since March 2010, with manufacturing creating 14 percent of the jobs in the past 13 months.

However, government has lost jobs since the middle of 2010. Another 14,000 jobs were lost in January.

Despite the job creation, only 63.7 percent of working age Americans had a job in January. That included about 8.2 million people who were involuntarily working part time in January either because their employer cut their hours or because they were unable to find a full time job.

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