The unemployment rate in the U.S. dropped to 9.7 percent in January, while payrolls declined by 20,000, Labor Department figures showed Feb. 6. Manufacturers added to payrolls for the first time in three years and that may help revive the rest of the labor market.

Some companies continue to cut staff. Humana Inc., the best-performing U.S. health-insurance stock this year, will reduce its workforce by 5 percent as the company faces shrinking private-sector enrollments and cuts in government-backed Medicare payments.

About 2,500 jobs will be eliminated through attrition, outsourcing and shedding positions, the Louisville, Kentucky- based company said Feb. 4 in a statement. The insurer also plans to hire 1,100 people in the growth areas of medical-cost containment, pharmacy management and specialty products, for a net reduction of 1,400 workers.

"This regrettable but necessary reduction in our workforce is a direct result of Humana's need to align the size of our company with that of our membership,"said Michael McCallister, the company's president and chief executive officer, in the statement.

3,000 Cuts

Warren Buffett's [supporter of Obama during his campaign] Berkshire Hathaway Inc. cut about 3,000 jobs since December after customers scaled back orders for building-related materials, the firm said in a regulatory filing last week.

"If you look at our carpet business, our brick business, our insulation business, all of those businesses have had significant reductions in employment," Buffett said in an interview in Omaha, Nebraska, on Jan. 20. "The day the orders come in, we hire back. But there's no reason to hire people if they don't have anything to do."