U.S. gains 157K jobs; jobless rate rises to 7.9%

Employers across the country added 157,000 jobs in January and hiring was stronger over the past two years than previously thought, providing reassurance that the job market held steady while economic growth sputtered. However, the mostly upbeat Labor Department report released this morning included a negative sign: The unemployment rate rose to 7.9% from 7.8% in December. The unemployment rate is calculated from a survey of households, while job gains come from a survey of employers. The hiring picture over the past two years looked better after the department’s annual revisions. Those showed employers added an average of roughly 180,000 jobs per month in 2012 and 2011, up from previous estimates of about 150,000. And hiring was stronger at the end of last year, averaging 200,000 new jobs in the final three months. One notable change in the job market is the stronger contribution from construction firms. They added 28,000 jobs in January and nearly 100,000 in the past four months. The gains are consistent with a rebound in home construction and a broader recovery in housing. Last month’s hiring should cushion the impact of the higher Social Security taxes that most consumers are paying this year. And it would help the economy to resume growing after it shrank at an annual rate of 0.1% in the fourth quarter. The Associated Press has the full story here.