Leading up to and following Friday’s news that the unemployment rate in the United States rose to 7.6% as the economy shed 598,000 jobs in January, Stockhouse members on one Bullboard weighed in with some of their thoughts on the data.

According to MarketWatch, the number of jobs lost last month represents the largest monthly decline since 1974. The Canadian Press notes that the latest job losses were “far worse than the 524,000 that economists had expected.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor also said Friday that payroll employment has declined by 3.6 million since the start of the recession in December 2007, with half of the decline in the last three months.

The job losses occurred in almost all major industry sectors, including manufacturing, which lost 207,000 positions in January, the largest one month decline since October 1982. Construction also lost 111,000 jobs in January, while the temporary help industry shed 76,000 jobs last month.

Health care employment continued to trend up in January, gaining 19,000.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the change in total nonfarm employment for November was revised from a loss of 584,000 jobs to a loss of 597,000, while the economy lost 577,000 jobs in December; 524,000 more than originally reported.

On the Horizons BetaPro NYMEX Crude Oil Bear Plus ETF Bullboard over the last couple of days, posters have been discussing the numbers and their potential effect on the ETF, including stockabcde on Thursday, who said: “The unemployment number is just noise...the Bank plan is the key...looks like everyone is buying before it...they may sell once announced[sic].”

livenlearn said: “market is assuming the worst given the employment benefit numbers today. ...imo. I say it's priced in, like everything else has been this week. The bailout package rumours will give some optimism to the markets (real or not) before the weekend and may have another small rally Friday aft, .. or it will offset any retracement tomorrow morning[sic].”

On Friday, daveybuoy noted: “Results are pretty much as expected, the correction was factored in overnight and is just over $1...so far[sic].”