The US Department of Labor reported Friday that the unemployment rate fell 0.2 percent to 8.3 percent in January, the lowest it has been since February 2009. Friday's labor report also indicated that the US experienced sustained job growth in almost every industry with about 3.7 million private sector jobs being created in the past 23 months. Two sectors that saw significant growth in January were manufacturing and construction which added 50,000 jobs and 52,000 jobs, respectively.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada announced Friday that the Canadian unemployment rate rose for a fourth consecutive month in January,by 0.1 percent to 7.6 percent. Nevertheless, in January, total employment in Canada increased 1.2 percent with 39,000 new employees entering both the private and public sectors.