Roundup: U.S. employers add 353,000 jobs in January despite wave of layoffs

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. employers added 353,000 jobs in January despite a wave of recent layoffs by big companies, with the unemployment rate unchanged at 3.7 percent, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Friday.

Job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, retail trade, and social assistance, the report noted. Employment declined in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry.