January's employment figures announced Friday presented a mixed picture, but included a thin strip of light on the horizon.

The good news is the jobless rate dropped from 10 percent to 9.7 percent -- after a peak of 10.1 percent in October. Although it is difficult to analyze such changes, because the size and composition of the labor market is fluid and because the Department of Labor sometimes adjusts figures after the fact, a drop in the unemployment rate is encouraging for the economy. It also appears that the size of the labor market -- the number of Americans actively looking for work -- grew slightly in January, making the fall in the overall figure even more positive.

Not so encouraging is that the economy still dropped 20,000 more jobs in January, bringing the job loss total during the recession to an estimated 8.4 million. The pain comes in realizing that these losses mean families without income, more housing foreclosures and evictions, an end to health insurance coverage and children having to cope with the burden of knowing their parents are unemployed.

On a global scale, even scarier is the fact that, in spite of the economic stimulus of President Barack Obama and his clear concentration on jobs now, there is no indication that he -- or anyone in Congress, for that matter -- has found the key to creating jobs. Government spending in that area, during the time of President George W. Bush as well as in the Obama period, has had questionable impact.

The other painful aspect of Washington's response to unemployment is it inevitably involves spending more borrowed money. The only way that can come out right is if it creates higher employment and a healthier economy, which produces more tax revenue and reduces needs over the long haul. We can only hope. In the meantime, Americans can take pleasure in seeing the unemployment rate fall.

Cartoonist Rob Rogers does "Rob's Rough," an early look at his work and his creative process, exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.