February 1st, 2013 10:54 PM by Eric Fang
There was mixed news in the Jobs Report for January: 157,000 jobs were created, which was below expectations, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.9% from 7.8%. On the flip side, the November and December job numbers were revised higher by 127,000. In addition, the benchmark revisions showed that employers added 335,000 jobs in 2012, more than was originally reported. That brought the average rate of job gains per month in 2012 to 181,000, up from the 175,000 per month average seen in 2011.
Overall, the labor market continues to improve, but at a very slow pace. And seeing the unemployment rate tick higher is yet another reason why the Fed said last week that their Bond purchase program (known as Quantitative Easing) will continue.
It will interesting to wait and see more economic newsin the next a few weeks.