Unemployment dropped to 9.7% in January

Seems to me this isn't any tell tale sign of the economy getting better. It seems with every small gain there are several steps back. It will be interesting though to see whether Obama's tax cuts get passed and whether the republicans will support them or not. I'll be so frustrated if they decide to not support it even though that's a huge part of their platform.

The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since August. John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo, said the decline wasn't a result of a shrinking labor force, which has held the rate down in previous months.

"It simply was, people found jobs," he said. The report is "consistent with continued improvement in the labor market."

The department also revised its past employment estimates to show that job losses from the Great Recession have been much worse than previously stated. The economy has shed 8.4 million jobs since the downturn began in December 2007, up from a previous figure of 7.2 million.

Another interesting question is asking how many college graduates are finding jobs out of college, this type of figure is left out of the discussion.

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