U.S. employers added 146,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department said on Friday in an unexpectedly weak report on the labor market, but a drop in job-seekers pushed the unemployment rate to its lowest level in more than three years.

The gain in nonfarm payrolls in January, while the most since October, came in below expectations for 190,000 new jobs. Jobs gains for December came in at 133,000, down from an initial estimate of 157,000 one month ago.

The latest snapshot of labor market activity also showed that the overall civilian unemployment rate dropped to 5.2 percent in January from 5.4 percent in December. January’s jobless rate was the lowest since September 2001.