Report: January Jobs Report Shows 157,000 Jobs Added Inspite of Jobless Rate Increasing

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The January 2013 jobs report was released on Friday and while it showed that around 157,000 net nonfarm jobs were created, it also reported that the jobless rate increased to 7.9 percent.

But the Bureau of Labor Statistics defends the unemployment rate by stating in its press release that the "unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 7.9 percent". There are still 12.3 million people in the country who are jobless, and that is just the figure put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics based on the household surveys that it carries out. Out of these 12.3 million, there are at least 4.7 million Americans who are being counted as long-term unemployed now (individuals who have been jobless for over 27 weeks).

The number of part-time employees was 8 million, while another 2.4 million were said to be "marginally attached" to the workforce, including 804,000 workers who had given up looking for work, or as the BLS calls them "discouraged workers".

Job search website EmploymentCrossing.com has been able to track down 2.2 million job openings across the United States. The jobs report says that retail and wholesale trade along with construction and healthcare were the main engines of jobs growth in January.

The retail industry added 33,000 jobs, and restaurants and hotels added 17,000 jobs. EmploymentCrossing.com has found 74,000 retail jobs this week. The healthcare industry added 28,000 jobs in January. For this industry, EmploymentCrossing has been able to find 113,000 job openings this week.

The construction industry was able to add 28,000 net jobs in January because of a housing rebound that is finally giving a push to the industry. EmploymentCrossing.com has found 8,000 construction job openings.

For more details on the job openings according to the industry on the site: http://www.employmentcrossing.com/jobs/jobs.html