PHONE SURVEY SAYS THAT UNEMPLOYMENT WENT DOWN...BIGGEST JOB LOSS SINCE PRESIDENT HOOVER AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION!

More and more people are unemployed or unable to find ANY suitable job to substitute the one that they lost, yet a telephone household survey says that the rate DROPPED!

Fantasy, it seems is not limited to the movie AVATAR anymore, it is permeating into the unemployment data and now we will be forced to endure surveys from people that tell us how many people are not working.

The true figures state that a whopping 8.4 million jobs have been lost since 2007, instead of the 7.2 million that the government kept telling us....that is quite a difference!

THIS LOSS IS JOBS IS BIGGER THAN ANY JOB LOSS SINCE PRESIDENT HOOVER IN 1932!

The unemployment rate dropped from 10 percent because a survey of households found the number of employed Americans rose by 541,000, the Labor Department said Friday. The job losses are calculated from a separate survey of employers.

Without the beleaguered construction industry, which shed 75,000 jobs, the private sector added 63,000 positions.

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.

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.

That's the most jobs lost in any recession, as a percent of total employment, since World War II.

Much of January's report offers hope that employers are starting to reverse course and may start adding jobs soon ( who are we kidding?). Aside from November's gain, January's job losses were the smallest since the recession began and are down from the huge loss of 779,000 jobs in January 2009.

The manufacturing sector added jobs for the first time since January 2007. Its gain of 11,000 jobs was the most since April 2006.

Retailers added 42,100 jobs, the most since November 2007, before the recession began. Temporary help services gained 52,000 jobs, its fourth month of gains. That could signal future hiring, as employers usually hire temp workers before permanent ones.

The average work week increased to 33.3 hours, from 33.2. That indicates employers are increasing hours for their current workers, a step that usually precedes new hiring.

The number of part-time workers who want full-time work, but can't find it, fell by almost 1 million ( yes they gave up). That lowered the "underemployment" rate, which also includes discouraged workers, to 16.5 percent from 17.3 percent.

The federal government has begun hiring workers to perform the 2010 census, which added 9,000 jobs. That process could add as many as 1.2 million jobs this year, though they will all be temporary.

But job cuts at the state and local levels canceled out those gains, as government employment fell by 8,000.

Most of the 75,000 jobs lost in the construction industry came from the commercial building sector, the department said. Construction lost more jobs than other sector.

Still, jobs remain scarce even as the economy is recovering: Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's output, has risen for two straight quarters. GDP rose by 5.7 percent in the October-December quarter, the fastest pace in six years.

Many economists say businesses are reluctant to add workers because it's not clear whether the recovery will continue once government stimulus measures, such as tax credits for home buyers, fade this spring.

The debate over health care reform and the scheduled expiration of some Bush administration tax cuts at the end of this year may also hold back some employers, many economists said.

"Until some of these uncertainties from Washington get cleared up, businesses, particularly small businesses, are going to be loath to do any additional hiring," said Hank Smith, chief investment officer at Haverford Investments.

High unemployment could restrain consumer spending, which has led most recoveries in the past. That's why many economists think the current rebound will be weak.

Public concern about persistent unemployment has forced President Barack Obama and members of Congress to shift their attention to jobs and the economy and away from health care reform. The Senate will begin working Monday on legislation that would give companies a tax break for hiring new workers, Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.

The budget plan Obama released this week projects unemployment will still be very high -- 9.8 percent -- by the end of this year.

There is no way that this rate will hold up, our prediction is 11-12% by year end, or by election time in November.