In its January Employment Situation Summary released on Friday the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the United States added 243,000 non-farm payroll jobs to the economy in January, with a total of 257,000 jobs added by the private sector which resulted in an unemployment rate of 8.3%, down .2% from its level of 8.5% in December.
January marks the 23rd consecutive month of net private sector job growth.
In addition, November’s and December’s numbers of net increases in non-farm jobs were revised from +100,000 to +157,000 and from +200,000 to +203,000, respectively.
The report also stated that the number of discouraged workers, workers who have stopped searching for employment because they do not believe there is a job opportunity available for them, stood at 1.1 million, little change compared to January 2011.
In his blog on the White House website, Council of Economics Advisors Chairman Alan Krueger remarked,
“Today’s employment report provides further evidence that the economy is continuing to heal from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. It is critical that we continue the economic policies that are helping us to dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the recession that began at the end of 2007. Most importantly, we need to extend the payroll tax cut and continue to provide emergency unemployment benefits through the end of this year, and take the additional steps that President Obama proposed in his State of the Union address to create an economy built to last.”
(Krueger, Alan B. The Employment Situation in January. Whitehouse.gov. 3 February 2012. Web. 3 February 2012.)
January saw gains in various private business sectors:
- Professional and Business Services: 70,000
- Wholesale trade development: 14,000
- Retail: 19,000
- Health care: 31,000
- Manufacturing: 50,000
- Leisure and hospitality: 44,000
- Mining: 10,000
- Construction: 21,000
Meanwhile, the information sector saw a loss of about 13,000 jobs for the month, and there was little change in government employment.
Overall, the average work week in January for private sector non-farm jobs changed little, while the manufacturing sector average work week hours increased by .3 hours to 40.9 hours.
Average hourly pay for non farm employee payrolls increased by .2% to $23.29, and over the past 12 months average hourly earnings have increased by 1.9%.
The February 2012 employment situation report will be released on Friday March 9, 2012.
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