Jobless Numbers Drop in U.S.

While 157,000 jobs were added throughout the United States in January, the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 7.9 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The growth is par for the course—mirroring monthly gains reported in recent years and doing “little to dent the backlog of 12 million or so jobless workers,” Forbes reports. 

The number of long-term unemployed—which consists of those who have been without a job for more than 27 weeks —remained relatively unchanged at 3.8 million last month and accounted for 38.1 percent of the total jobless rate, according U.S. Labor Department numbers. 

In 2012, an average of 181,000 jobs were created each month, which was not enough to show significant growth, according to Reuters. Economists told Reuters over 250,000 jobs per month would need to be added over an extended period to see substantial gains.

In Illinois, the jobless rate in December was 8.6 percent—up slightly from November when the unemployment rate was 8.3 percent, according to Illinois Department of Employment Security numbers released in recent weeks. January numbers were not yet available.