Employers in the United States added 143,000 workers to their payrolls in January, the Department of Labor said Friday, and the unemployment rate slipped to 4.0 percent.
Economists had been expecting 168,000 jobs and an unemployment rate unchanged at 4.1 percent, according to a survey by Econoday.
The figures are seasonally adjusted. In January, there is typically a large downshift in employment in the retail sector, as businesses downsize following the holiday shopping season. Without seasonal adjustment, the data show the economy shed nearly 2.9 million jobs in January.
Private-sector employment grew by 111,000, less than the 140,000. Government employment expanded by 32,000. Healthcare and social assistance—the so-called government-adjacent sectors—added 66,000. Private sector employment excluding the government-adjacent sectors rose by just 45,000.
Manufacturing employment grew by a soft 3,000 and construction by just 4,000. Employment in mining, which includes energy extraction, fell. The goods-producing sectors combined were flat for the month.
The private services sector added 111,000. Retail trade expanded, although this is heavily influenced by seasonal adjustments. Transportation and utilities added 1,100 jobs. Professional and business services contracted. Leisure and hospitality shed 3,000 jobs. The information sector added 2,000 jobs and the financial sector 7,000.
The November jobs figure, which was already considered a strong number, was revised up by 49,000, from 212,000 to 261,000. The December jobs number was revised up by 51,000, from 256,000 to
307,000. With these revisions, total employment in November and December combined is 100,000 higher than previously reported.
There were severe wildfires in Southern California and bitter winter weather in much of the country during the period in which the data for the monthly jobs numbers were collected. Goldman Sachs has estimated that approximately 0.5 percent of the workforce were under evacuation orders in January. Many economists expect the fires and weather likely weighed on employment in the month. The Department of Labor said, however, that these had no discernable effect on the national payroll numbers or the unemployment rate.
Wage gains were much stronger than expected. In January, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 17 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $35.87. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings are up by 4.1 percent. In January, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 16 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $30.84.
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