Lower than expected rise in US employment blamed on weather woes

United States employment rose far less than expected in January, partly the result of severe snow storms, but the unemployment rate fell to its lowest since April 2009, figures yesterday revealed.

So-called "non-farm payrolls" grew just 36,000, the US labour department said, far less than the 145,000 increase economists had expected.

The government noted the weather could have affected construction payrolls, which fell 32,000 last month. There were also large drops in employment of couriers and messengers. Despite the small increase in payrolls, the jobless rate, which is calculated from a separate survey, fell to 9 per cent from 9.4 per cent in December. The decline is unlikely to discourage the Federal Reserve from completing its $600 billion (370bn) government bond-buying programme to support the economy. The labour department revised November and December payrolls to show 40,000 more jobs created than previously estimated.

The payrolls data comes from a survey of businesses, while the jobless rate is determined by a survey of households. The January household survey also reflects population changes, which makes it difficult to say why the jobless rate fell.

A department official noted that 886,000 people in the survey said they did not work in January because of the weather.