Unemployment drops to 9.4 percent, but far fewer jobs added than expected
The Labor Department's monthly jobs report found that the U.S. added 103,000 new private and public sector jobs in December. That's up from 71,000 in November. But after an encouraging report on private-sector job growth this week, economists had predicted the gain the figure would be 145,000.
The decline in the unemployment rate occurred not just because more people found jobs, but also because some people stopped looking for work, meaning they no longer show up in the figures.