Decline in U.S. non-farm payrolls in January and falling unemployment

U.S. payrolls rose much less than expected in January, partly due to the blizzards that hit large parts of the United States, but the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since April 2009. The Labor Department said on Friday that non-farm payrolls rose only 36 thousand, well below the 145 thousand economists were expecting.
In spite of the limited increase in jobs to a separate survey showed the unemployment rate dropped to nine percent from 9.4 percent in December