The US economy generated 146,000 jobs in January, the US government said in a report well below
economists' forecasts.
The report, one of the best indicators of economic activity, was well below the average Wall Street forecast of 200,000 new jobs. The Labor Department report also revised downward its estimate of December job creation to 133,000 from an earlier estimate of 157,000.
The January unemployment rate, based on a separate survey, fell to 5.2% from 5.4% in December.
Since the trough in May 2003, employment has grown by 2.7 million. The Labor Department said the total number of employed people hit 132.573 million, as employment broke its February 2001 peak for the first time.
Payrolls have increased by an average of 137,000 in the past three months, a slowdown from the 181,000 average pace in all of 2004.
