Unemployment Rate Declines to 8.3%; Trucking Adds 5,300 Jobs
The unemployment rate dropped in January to 8.3%, the lowest almost in three years, while the economy added 243,000 jobs, including 5,300 trucking jobs, the Labor Department said Friday.
Total transportation and warehousing sector employment climbed by 13,100 workers, Labor figures showed.
The unemployment rate, which fell from 8.5% in December, marked the lowest level since February 2009.
Economists had projected that the unemployment rate would hold at 8.5% and the jobs gain surpassed economists’ forecasts of 140,000, Bloomberg reported.
The payrolls gain followed a revised 203,000 increase in November that was larger than the 200,000 originally reported.
The payroll and unemployment figures are obtained by separate surveys, with payrolls from a survey of employers and the unemployment rate from a survey of households.
Factory employment jumped by 50,000, the most in a year.
Private hiring rose by 257,000 jobs after a revised gain of 220,000 the previous month. Government payrolls decreased by 14,000.
