U.S. employers added just 146,000 jobs in January, the government said on Friday in an unexpectedly weak report on the labor market, but a drop in job-seekers pushed the unemployment rate to its lowest level in more than three years. The gain in nonfarm payrolls in January came in below expectations for 190,000 new jobs, but was enough to return the nation’s employment to where it was before the 2001 recession began.
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