The US Department of Labor reported that the unemployment rate fell by 0.2% to 8.3% in January 2012, the lowest it has been since February 2009.

The labor report also indicated that the US experienced sustained job growth in almost every industry with about 3.7 million private sector jobs being created in the past 23 months. Two sectors that saw significant growth in January were manufacturing and construction which added 50,000 jobs and 52,000 jobs, respectively.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada announced that the Canadian unemployment rate rose for a fourth consecutive month in January 2012, by 0.1% to 7.6%.

Nevertheless, in January 2012, total employment in Canada increased 1.2% with 39,000 new employees entering both the private and public sectors.

(Sourced from Steel Orbis)
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