JANUARY NONFARM PAYROLLS DROP 20K, UNEMPLOYMENT RATE 9.7%

Nonfarm payrolls for the month of January dropped 20k following a downwardly revised 150k decline in December. November payrolls were revised up to show a 64k addition for the month after an initial revision to 4k last month. Downward revisions to a majority of last year's figures pushed overall '09 payrolls down by another 617k, an average monthly downward revision of about 61k . The October figure was revised down by 97k to -224k, September was revised down by 86k to -225k, August was revised down by 57k to -211k, July was revised down by 40k to -344k, June was revised down 41k to -504k, May was revised down 44k to -347k, April was revised down 63k to -582k, March was revised down 101k to -753k , February was revised down 45k to -726k, and January was revised down 38 to -779k. The January unemployment rate declined 0.3 percentage points to 9.7%. The BLS reports that a total of 8.4mln job losses since the start of the recession in December '07; job losses in '09 totaled 4.78mln. U6 unemployment, a survey which includes marginally attached and discouraged workers, fell to 16.5% in January from 17.3% in December. Goods-producing sector employment dropped 60k over the month following a 54k decline the month prior. Manufacturing employment gained 11k in January, the first monthly improvement since January '07.Construction employment dropped 75k jobs in January with a majority of this cuts taking place in specialty trade contractorsService sector employment gained 40k in January, the second increase over the past three months, following a 96k decline in November. Temporary employment added 52k jobs over the month, and have added 247k jobs since September. Retail sector employment added 42k positions for the month of January following two straight months of muted declines. Government employment dropped 8k in January following a 27k decline in December. Federal government employment rose by 33k over the month which includes 9k positions for the census. Average hourly earnings of private and nonsupervisory workers in January gained 5 cents or 0.3% to $18.89. Average weekly hours ticked up by 0.1 to 33.3, weekly hours for workers in the manufacturing sector grew 0.2 to 40.8.