U.S. added 517,000 jobs in January as employers drove unexpected hiring surge
The employment picture started off 2023 on a stunningly strong note, with nonfarm payrolls posting their strongest gain since last July.
The employment picture started off 2023 on a stunningly strong note, with nonfarm payrolls posting their strongest gain since last July.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 517,000 in January, far above the Dow Jones estimate of 187,000. The unemployment rate fell to a historic low of 3.4%, compared with the estimate of 3.6%.
The U.S. hasn’t seen an unemployment rate as low as January’s since 1969. Unemployment among Black Americans declined slightly to 5.4% but ticked up for Hispanic Americans to 4.5%, both of which remain higher than the national average.
Job growth across a multitude of sectors helped propel the massive beat against the estimate. Leisure and hospitality, an industry that shed many positions early in the pandemic and has been racing to hire, added 128,000 jobs in January, leading all sectors. Other significant gainers were professional and business services (82,000), government (74,000) and health care (58,000).
Wages also posted solid gains for the month. Average hourly earnings increased 0.3%, in line with the estimate, and up 4.4% from a year ago, 0.1 percentage points higher than expectations. The labor force participation rate and the employment-to-population ratio both increased, reinforcing the portrait of a persistently strong labor market.
Rating: 5