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January Unemployment Rate Falls

The unemployment rate falls to 5.7 percent in January, a drop of 0.3 percent. The improvement is tied to hiring in the retail sector, but the surge was a bit misleading. Restaurants and other retailers hired fewer people than usual in December, and that threw January's numbers off. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.

Copyright 2003 NPR

Jim Zarroli is an NPR correspondent based in New York. He covers economics and business news.