The nation’s unemployment rate in January fell to 8.3 percent, down from December’s 8.5 percent, and the economy added 243,000 jobs, according to the latest figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

In December, after being battered in the arena of public opinion, House Republicans reluctantly agreed to a short extension of unemployment insurance (UI) for the nation’s jobless workers. That reprieve runs out Feb. 29 and House Republicans are set to relaunch their attack on UI.

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address tonight made clear that he hears the people who aren’t being heard by the 1%, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Obama’s speech showed he “listened to the single mom working two jobs to get by, to the out-of-work construction worker, to the retired factory worker, to the student serving coffee to help pay for college.”

First, multimillionaire Mitt Romney told a group of jobless workers he’s also “unemployed.”

Next, Romney thought there was no problem in stating publicly that he likes to “fire people.”

Andy Richards on our Field Communications staff sends us this.

Many state legislatures have gone back into session this week and some state lawmakers aren’t looking to create badly needed jobs. Instead, the first item on their agenda is to attack jobless workers and their families.

The nation gained 200,000 jobs in December, and the unemployment rate improved to 8.5 percent from 8.6  percent in November, according to Department of Labor data out this morning. The unemployment rate has declined by 0.6 percentage points since August and the number of unemployed workers dropped to 13.1 million from close to 14 million.

Congress this morning extended for two months unemployment insurance (UI) for America’s jobless workers. Republicans in the House earlier this week had blocked the UI extenstion, but after suffering badly in opinion polling, they announced they’d join with 89 out of 100 senators from both political parties who’d already voted to renew unemployment aid for two months—with no cuts and no strings attached.

When House Republicans left town for the holidays Wednesday, they didn’t even leave behind a piece of coal in the stockings of some 2.8 million jobless workers whose unemployment benefits are about to expire over the course of the next two months. At least a piece of coal can be burned for heat.

Here’s the video from the event we reported earlier today by Wisconsin union members, jobless workers and their allies who  called on Republican members of the U.S. House to get back to work and pass the bipartisan Senate compromise that extends unemployment insurance (UI) for long- term jobless workers.

The 229 Republican House members who voted to kill unemployment insurance UI benefits for the long-term jobless and a payroll tax cut for working families are home for the holidays. But they will be getting some visitors who likely aren’t on their holiday parties guest lists.