Unemployment still low: White Houses's Lazear

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. unemployment remains low and recent weak readings on the labor market and growth do not signal an economic "disaster" is looming, a senior economic advisor to U.S. President George W Bush said on Friday.

"Having 4.9 percent unemployment ... is still a very low rate of unemployment and I don't think we want to think about this as a weak labor market," Edward Lazear, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, told CNBC television.

Government data released earlier on Friday showed the unemployment rate eased to 4.9 percent in January from 5 percent in December.

"We don't want to overstate this, and think there is a disaster looming as a result of these most recent numbers," he said. January's nonfarm payroll report on Friday showed that 17,000 U.S. jobs were lost in January. Data earlier in the week showed growth slowing to a 0.6 percent annualized pace in the fourth quarter from 4.9 percent in the previous three months.

(Reporting by Alister Bull; Editing by James Dalgleish)