'Long Way to Go'
"We still have a long way to go before the labor market can be said to be operating normally," Bernanke told the House Budget Committee in Washington yesterday.
Today's figures may change the Fed's thinking, said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. "The report definitely scales down the odds for QE3, particularly the drop in the unemployment rate," Feroli said. "There is strength in the labor market."
The number of unemployed Americans dropped to 12.8 million, the lowest since January 2009, from 13.1 million in December. Still, the number of those who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more -- a source of concern for the Fed -- was little changed at 5.52 million and accounted for almost 43 percent of the total.
"We should welcome the headline numbers, they are really good, but we should not lose sight that we have structural issues that aren't being dealt with," Mohamed A. El-Erian, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop" with Betty Liu.
Among those still looking for work is Richard Richardson, 33, a former assistant district attorney for the city of San Francisco who moved to the Washington area with his wife last year to look for a government job.
"It's been a trying process," he said, adding that he hasn't yet had a single interview. Still, "I do feel confident that it's just a matter of time."