U.S. unemployment drops to 8.3% on hiring surge

Published Feb 3, 2012 at 3:19 pm (Updated Feb 3, 2012)

In the most impressive surge for the job market since early last year, the United States added 243,000 jobs in January, far more than economists expected. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3%, the lowest in three years. Hiring accelerated across the economy and up and down the pay scale. The high-salary professional services industry added 70,000 jobs, the most in 10 months. Manufacturing added 50,000, the most in a year. The unemployment rate is the lowest since February 2009, one month after President Barack Obama took office. The number of jobs added far exceeds an estimate by economists of 155,000, according to FactSet, a provider of financial data; other economists' estimates were even lower. January saw the most jobs created since April of last year, when 251,000 jobs were created. Before spring 2011, the last month with stronger hiring, excluding temporary hiring for the census, was March 2006—almost two years before the Great Recession began. The Associated Press has the full story here.