WASHINGTON - The unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly in January to 9.7 percent, while employers shed 20,000 jobs, according to a report that offered hope the economy will add jobs soon.

The unemployment rate dropped from 10 percent because a survey of households found the number of employed Americans rose by 541,000, the Labor Department said Friday. The job losses are calculated from a separate survey of employers.

The department also revised its past employment estimates to show that job losses from the Great Recession have been much worse than previously stated. The economy has shed 8.4 million jobs since the downturn began in December 2007, up from a previous figure of 7.2 million.

That's the most jobs lost in any recession, as a percent of total employment, since World War II.

The figure for November was revised higher, however, to show a gain of 64,000 jobs. That was initially reported as a gain of 4,000.

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Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Two weeks after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti, the numbers have mounted. The numbers tell stories of death and destruction, as well as a global outpouring of aid.

12,000: U.N. workers in the country at the time of the quake
53: U.N. workers still missing
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LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif.  -  The tail end of a Pacific storm was expected to bring occasionally heavy showers Friday as hundreds of Southern Californians who evacuated were warned that mudslides and flooding still threatened their foothill homes.

Hundreds of evacuees were expected to learn sometime Friday whether it was safe for them to return. Officials have said the risk of mudslides can last up to 72 hours after the rains have stopped.

A week of rain left hillsides saturated below areas burned bare by last year's 250-square-mile wildfire in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles.

Evacuation orders remained in effect for more than 1,200 homes as the National Weather Service warned of scattered showers and thunderstorms through the evening that could drop up to an inch of rain an hour at times.

There also could be an additional 4 to 8 inches of snow in the mountains.

In communities below burn areas, only minor slides were reported but flash flood watches remained in effect.

"This rain is still pouring down," Los Angeles County sheriff's spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said.

A week of storms has brought 8 to 10 inches of rain to the Los Angeles-area mountains, while lower-lying areas got about half that, National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Boldt said.

Most Southern California areas will see about a half-inch of rain Friday but areas hit by brief but fierce thunderstorms could get 1 to 2 inches, Boldt said.

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(CNN) -- If he could, Jim Boston would hop on a plane right now to bring his daughter, Farica, home.

The 4-year-old Haitian girl has been part of his family since the day he and his wife, Rebecca, began the adoption process -- and multiple trips to visit her -- more than two years ago.

She has the passport that will allow her to leave. She shares the Boston name with her parents and five siblings, including another Haitian girl. She was just weeks from leaving the Port-au-Prince orphanage where she's lived her whole short life.

The only thing that was keeping her from flying off to Chicago, Illinois, with her parents: the visa to let her into the United States. And that was set to come by month's end.

"We were two or three weeks away from going there to get her," Boston said Thursday. "We're so afraid. We expect rioting to happen soon. What little food they have is in jeopardy. ... We're trying to appeal for help in getting these children special status."

Looking out for Farica in the interim, while adoption proceedings stand frozen, are two sisters from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area. Jaime and Ali McMutrie, 30 and 21 respectively, run one of the houses at the Brebis de Saint-Michel de L'Attalaye (BRESMA) orphanage in Port-au-Prince.

In frantic messages they sent from a borrowed BlackBerry nearly 24 hours after the earthquake, the sisters shared the good news that all of the children in their care were alive. But they pleaded ... Click the link below to read more.
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -  Turning pickup trucks into ambulances and doors into stretchers, Haitians are frantically struggling to save those injured in this week's earthquake while hoping foreign governments will quickly send in aid.

Help began arriving early Thursday when an Air China plane carrying a Chinese search-and-rescue team, medics and aid landed at Port-au-Prince airport, and more than 50 people in orange jumpsuits got out accompanied by trained dogs.

The U.S. and other nations said they were sending food, water, medical supplies to assist the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, where the international Red Cross estimated 3 million people - a third of the population - may need emergency relief.

In the streets of the capital, survivors set up camps amid piles of salvaged goods, including food being scavenged from the rubble.

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