The overall economy added 243,000 jobs last month — with the health-care sector continuing to show strength — while the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%.
As the WSJ reports, that’s the lowest the jobless rate has been since Feb. 2009. (Here’s the full report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
The health-care industry added 30,900 jobs in January, following a revised increase of 17,600 jobs the previous month. (Originally the government reported a larger December gain of 22,600 jobs in the sector, as we reported.)
Data from the BLS gives a snapshot of job growth by facility rather than job function. For example, the report shows that hospitals added 12,700 jobs, but doesn’t say whether those were nursing, IT or cafeteria positions.
Ambulatory health-care services added 12,900 jobs as doctors’ offices, outpatient care centers and home-health services all saw growth.
Nursing-care facilities added 2,700 jobs, while the broader category of nursing and residential-care facilities overall gained 5,300 jobs in January.
It hasn’t been a great week for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the breast-cancer advocacy group known for its pink-ribbon fundraising efforts.
Today the group reversed a decision — made public only Tuesday — to end Planned Parenthood’s eligibility for grants. Critics had said Komen planned to cut funding to the group for breast exams and education under pressure from anti-abortion organizations; Komen denied that.
In a statement, Komen’s board and its founder and CEO, Nancy Brinker, apologized “to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving womens lives.” The statement continues:
The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.
Komen’s short-lived move to defund Planned Parenthood spurred controversy, to put it mildly. Komen’s public rationale for its action changed over the week: A spokeswoman originally told the Associated Press it had changed its criteria to end grants to any organization under government investigation. But later in the week it said the decision sprang from a broader review of its criteria for grantees.
Today it said it would “amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.”
Planned Parenthood is the subject of a congressional investigation.
Komen’s statement continues:
Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.
It is our hope and we believe it is time for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect on how grants can most effectively and directly be administered without controversies that hurt the cause of women. We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics — anyones politics.
Starting this afternoon, we will have calls with our network and key supporters to refocus our attention on our mission and get back to doing our work. We ask for the publics understanding and patience as we gather our Komen affiliates from around the country to determine how to move forward in the best interests of the women and people we serve.
We extend our deepest thanks for the outpouring of support we have received from so many in the past few days and we sincerely hope that these changes will be welcomed by those who have expressed their concern.
Planned Parenthood, in a statement, said it is “enormously grateful that the Komen Foundation has clarified its grantmaking criteria, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Komen partners, leaders and volunteers. What these past few days have demonstrated is the deep resolve all Americans share in the fight against cancer, and we honor those who are at the helm of this battle.”
So, readers, have the week’s events changed your opinion of Susan G. Komen for the Cure?
Yesterday, Eric Metaxas, who was sharing a dais with President and Mrs. Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, among others, gave a stirring speech at the annual National Day of Prayer (see Emily Belz’s report and a video clip edited down to just his remarks below). At one point during his speech, Metaxas shared how Ed Tuttle influenced him and led him to the Lord after his agnostic days at Yale. Mr. Tuttle wrote to WORLD this morning to share his remembrances of that time and has graciously allowed us to share his note with you all:
Dear WORLD:
After reading many of the comments to Emily Belz’s article about Eric’s address at the National Prayer Breakfast, it is obvious that Eric moved many people emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. But on a personal level, I was moved to tears to see the impact God allows us to have for His Kingdom in ways we could never imagine.
I’m the Episcopalian* Eric mentioned who gave him a copy of The Cost of Discipleship. I never set out to convert Eric. I can probably count on one hand the number of people I have led to Christ. I love to teach and disciple people, yet when I evangelize, the words dribble down my chin and drop to the floor. In fact, in those early days I probably drove more people away from the Lord than toward Him! I was simply there as a friend to answer a young man’s questions and pray for his dying uncle.
I am humbled and grateful to have been a key person at that point in Eric’s quest for truth. And I am continually blessed by Eric’s humility and gratitude, as he still sees it fitting and important to mention a now 54-year-old graphic designer, quietly working out of his home, as the man who helped set him on a course for his life and in God’s Kingdom.
Thank you all for the work you do in shining the light of God’s character on the daily events that shape our world. You have a greater impact than you know.
Ed Tuttle
*Side note: I started as a Catholic seminarian, found Christ in the Episcopal Church 28 years ago, learned to worship freely in a non-denominational congregation, and am now joyfully serving in a healthy, vibrant Baptist fellowship where it is not unusual for three generations in the same family to be members. The journey never ends!
Yesterday, Eric Metaxas, who was sharing a dais with President and Mrs. Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, among others, gave a stirring speech at the annual National Day of Prayer (see 
