(2004-02-06) -- Economists today lamented news of the fifth straight monthly increase in non-farm jobs because it fell short of the figure they had predicted.

Only 112,000 new jobs were created in January, not the expected 150,000, due largely to a continuing slump in the economic forecasting industry.

"Nobody’s hiring experts to predict what the economy will do anymore," said an unnamed spokesman for the Union of Economic Forecasters (UEF). "Maybe it’s because the predictions are rarely accurate and every time the news breaks that the economy fell short of predictions, the stock market slumps. But at the UEF, we still think there’s a need for professionals who make self-fulfilling economic prophesies. In fact, we predict that in February, almost 300,000 new jobs will be created for economic forecasters."