U.S. unemployment falls below 5%

The unemployment rate fell below 5% in January for the first time since the recession hit, hitting 4.9% as the U.S. economy adding 151,000 jobs last month.

The number of unemployed persons was little-changed at 7.8 million, though that number is down by 1.1 million over the past 12 months.

However, the number of long-term unemployed was unchanged at 2.1 million, a number that's shown little movement since June.

Job gains occurred primarily in retail trade (58,000), food services

and drinking places (47,000), health care (37,000), and manufacturing (29,000).

However, employment declined in private

educational services (-39,000), transportation and warehousing(-20,000), and mining (-7,000).

Within the retail trade, general merchandise stores got the most gains (15,000 new jobs).

However, building material and garden equipment & supplies stores were actually down by 700 jobs for the month.

Construction added 18,000 jobs in January, with residential building accounting for 7,500.