Good news about jobs

Good news is out today about the jobs picture. The unemployment rate dropped to 9.7% in January, still high but a steady improvement over the 10% in November and December and much better than the 10.1% some analysts expected. Unemployment is down 0.4% from its peak in October. Other good news is that only 20,000 jobs were lost in January versus 150,000 in December.

See analysis from the Center for Economic and Policy Research here:

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/data-bytes/jobs-bytes/2010-02/?utm_source=CEPR+feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+cepr+(CEPR)

and from the Brookings Institution here:

http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2010/0205_job_report_burtless.aspx?p=1