During a snow-battered January, US employment only rose 36,000, well-below the expected 145,000, according to the just-released jobs report by the Department of Labor. Unemployment also fell to 9% by .4 percentage points. While that looks odd on the face of it, the difference is largely because that rate is calculated using a different report than payroll data. So, how’s your job-search going? If the answer is, “poorly,” you’re in good company.

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION — JANUARY 2011 [Bureau of Labor Statistics]

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