Job Creation Surges In January

January's employment report, issued by the Labor Department, provided some unexpected good news and some hope for those looking for work. The economy added 243,000 new payroll jobs during the month and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent.

The private sector actually added 257,000 jobs during the month, but the loss of some government jobs lowered the net gain to 243,000.

“For months the data were coming in stronger than expected but it was not clear that businesses were willing to loosen the hiring strings,” said economist Joel Naroff, of Naroff Economic Advisors, in Holland, Pa. “Well, that may be changing.”

Factory jobs increase

Among the good news is where the jobs were added. Manufacturers hired 50,000 people. Construction, wholesale trade, health care, transportation, professional services, temporary help and restaurants all saw healthy gains. Within the private sector, financial services was the weakest.

“In January, the improvement came despite a sharp rise in the labor force,” Naroff said. “That was offset by a huge increase in the number of people who say they are employed, showing it was the economy not statistics that are driving down the rate.”

Wall Street reacted positively to the pleasant surprise. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 133 points at mid day. Meanwhile, Naroff said he expects the steady progress on the jobs front to continue.

“Since the bottom was hit in February 2010, the private sector has brought back almost 3.7 million workers,” Naroff said. “Clearly, the jobless recovery is no longer jobless.”