U.S. Labor Market Improving But Still Volatile, Reports Suggest

Data in recent months has pointed to continual improvement in the nation's battered labor market. But job cuts continue and there's still a long way to go before millions of Americans again find employment or the kind of jobs they want, two reports released Thursday show.

The first of those shows that the nation's employers planned to cut 53,486 jobs in January, the largest number since last September, when companies sought to eliminate nearly 116,000 positions, according to data compiled by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a Chicago-based employment-services firm.