US Job Growth Slowed In January After 2024 Downward Revision
The government’s once-a-year benchmark revisions now show job growth averaged 166,000 a month last year, a slowdown from the initially reported 186,000 pace.
US job growth moderated in January after annual revisions from the government revealed less vigor in the labor market last year than previously thought.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 143,000 last month after a revised 307,000 gain in December, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed Friday. The BLS said the wildfires in Los Angeles, as well as severe winter weather in other parts of the country, had “no discernible effect” on employment in the month.
The government’s once-a-year benchmark revisions now show job growth averaged 166,000 a month last year, a slowdown from the initially reported 186,000 pace. The BLS uses records from the unemployment insurance tax system, and also adjusts for the openings and closings of businesses, to revise its previously published payrolls counts.
The unemployment rate was 4.0% — the survey used to produce the number incorporated separate revisions to reflect a new population estimate at the start of the year, which makes the figure incomparable to prior months.
The change in January employment and updated payrolls figures back to early 2023 show a moderating yet healthy labor market that continues to fuel the economy without contributing to inflationary pressures. It also helps explain why Federal Reserve policymakers have signaled they aren’t in a hurry to lower borrowing costs further after three interest-rate cuts last year.
Officials are also contending with inflation that’s dissipating only gradually and uncertainty around new policies from President Donald Trump. While Chair Jerome Powell has most recently described the job market as “pretty stable,” he and his colleagues have repeatedly said they wouldn’t like to see it cool any further.
Stock futures and Treasury yields rose while the dollar fluctuated after the report.
Job growth in January was largely fueled by health care, retail trade and government. Employment fell in mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction, as well as temporary help services and auto manufacturing.
While BLS said the weather didn’t have much of an impact on the January figures, nearly 600,000 people didn’t work last month because of bad weather — the most in four years. Another 1.2 million people who usually work full-time could only find part-time work due to the weather.
That also had an effect on hours worked, which dropped to the lowest since the onset of the pandemic. Meantime, hourly wages climbed 0.5%.
