If Barack Obama were looking for a further boost in his popularity from the new jobs data, he’d be disappointed. Yes, the unemployment rate dropped from 9.4 percent in December to 9.0 percent last month, in part due to a decline in the labor force participation rate to the lowest level since March 1984, and in part due to a statistical glitch that the Labor Department says makes the December 2010 and January 2011 non-comparable. But a somewhat different and more closely watched survey shows that the economy added only a paltry 36,000 jobs in January, a gain of 50,000 in the private sector offset by a decline of 14,000 in the public sector. 

Some say the severe weather accounted for the loss of 32,000 construction jobs; others say that the hiring of snow-removal workers inflated the weak jobs figures. Some say the data don’t reflect the growth in self-employment. Some point to purchasing managers’ surveys that show that businesses are hiring. The phrase whistling in the graveyard leaps to mind. Or, better still, jobless recovery.