Expectations heading into this week showed projections of about 169,000 new jobs having been added in the United States in January. As it turns out, according to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the totals fell a little short of expectations. NBC News reported:
The U.S. added 143,000 jobs in January, fewer than economists expected, but the unemployment rate inched down to 4% from 4.1%, beating forecasts and still near historic lows. Forecasters surveyed by Dow Jones had anticipated 169,000 payroll gains in January, after a blowout 307,000 jump in December, according to revised tallies.
After some amazing jobs report in the closing months of 2024 — including December’s blockbuster totals — the tally from January might seem a bit of a letdown.
But all things considered, it’s not a bad jobs report, and any time the nation’s unemployment rate is just 4%, it’s tough to complain. What’s more, the same Labor Department data found wages continuing to outpace inflation.
It’s also worth noting that, as is always the case with the jobs report released in early February, the latest tallies revise the jobs totals from the previous year, and on this front, the news also wasn’t ideal: While preliminary estimates showed the economy created 2.2 million jobs in 2024, the revised total is 2 million.
That’s still a pretty good number — it’s roughly the same as the first year of Donald Trump’s first term — but it’s not as good as previously believed.
Speaking of the president, whose job totals in his first term were easily eclipsed by Joe Biden’s totals, Trump spent the final months of 2024 insisting that he deserved credit for the good news in the employment market. As the Republican argued, employers were so excited about his glorious return to the White House, and the economic nirvana he’d create upon reclaiming power, that they started hiring quickly.
That never made any sense, and the short-of-expectations totals from January make the claims look even worse.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
