To: RetiredNow who wrote (108801 ) 2/3/2012 11:17:30 AM From: tejek Respond to Its important to note.......if the public sector were growing.......and it should be growing because our population keeps growing............this employment report would be notably better than it is. Job growth picks up steam, reaches 2-year high Steve Benen 155,000 The nation did much better than that, adding 243,000 jobs in January, as the overall unemployment rate dropped to 8.3%. The job totals are the best we've seen in two years, and the jobless rate has reached its lowest level in three years. Businesses added 257,000 jobs last month, while budget cuts forced the public sector to shed another 14,000 jobs. After years of jobs reports that were only considered encouraging when compared to where we've been, January's total is objectively good news. Indeed, this is one of the best -- if not the very best -- jobs reports since the recession began four years ago. In terms of revisions, the job numbers for November and December were better than previously reported . Today, the BLS also released revised totals for every month in the previous calendar year, and those revisions are reflected below. Update : Here's another chart, this one showing monthly job losses/gains in just the private sector since the start of the Great Recession. Note: these reflect the revised BLS data for all of 2011.
