<p style="text-indent:0px; line-height:12px;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Wall Street, New York-</span><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">By ANUK Staff<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">2.1.13</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>It’s the same old song and dance. Employment grew again in January but not at a pace able to lower the jobless rate.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Nonfarm payrolls rose 157,000 for the first month of 2013 while the unemployment rate edged higher to 7.9 percent, news unlikely to alter the Federal Reserve's monetary policy or instill confidence that the recovery is gaining momentum.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Good news for interest rates, as the government stated intent in December to increase the fed funds rate when unemployment reaches 6.5%. The country still has a long way to go, meaning rates should remain low for some time, placating fears expressed by CNBC.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"Job growth in January was good, but growth overall remains too slow to provide work for all who want and need it," said Christine L. Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Retail led the way in January with 33,000 new jobs, while construction rose 28,000 and health care added 23,000.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Having remained stagnant for nearly two years, the average duration of unemployment fell significantly to 35.3 weeks, the lowest since January 2011.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">But storm clouds remain distant on the horizon.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"There's going to be a lot of chatter about how and when the Fed pulls back on quantitative easing," Sonders said.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/01/employment-situation january"target="_new">The White House</a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
