Unemployment rate hits 8.3 pct. after hiring burst

WASHINGTON — In the most impressive surge for the job market since early last year, the United States added 243,000 jobs in January, far more than economists expected. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent, the lowest in three years.

Lower unemployment is a positive a sign for President Barack Obama's re-election hopes. Still, he's likely to face voters with the highest unemployment rate of any post-war president.

"There are still far too many Americans who need a job ... but the economy is growing stronger. The recovery is speeding up. And we need to do everything in our power to keep it going," Obama said Friday.

Hiring accelerated across the economy and up and down the pay scale. The high-salary professional services industry added 70,000 jobs, the most in 10 months. Manufacturing added 50,000, the most in a year.

"This is a very positive employment report from almost any angle," said Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Amherst College.

The report seemed certain to shake up the presidential campaign, which is expected to turn on the economy. The unemployment rate is the lowest since February 2009, one month after Obama took office.

The report Friday from the Labor Department sent money pouring into the stock market, already off to its best start in 15 years because of improving confidence in the economy, and out of more conservative investments in bonds.

The Dow Jones industrial average shot 160 points higher to 12,865 in the first hour of trading. That is 55 points better than its highest close since the financial crisis struck in the fall of 2008.

It was the most jobs added since and March and April of last year, when 246,000 and 251,000 jobs were created. Before that, the last month with stronger hiring, excluding months skewed by temporary census jobs, was March 2006.

The government said hiring was stronger in November and December by 60,000 jobs than first estimated. It was also stronger over the past two years than previously thought. The economy added 1.82 million jobs last year, nearly twice as many as in 2010.

The unemployment rate was down two notches from the 8.5 percent reading last month. It was also the fifth consecutive month the rate has fallen, the first time that has happened since late 1994.

Employers have added an average of 201,000 jobs a month in the past three months. That's 50,000 more jobs per month than the economy averaged in each month last year.