The nation’s healthcare and retail sectors added a combined nearly 80,000 new workers in January, leading the nation in new employment gains, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Construction industry jobs, meanwhile, saw a more modest 4,000 gain, contributing to an overall 178,000 employment jump since January of 2024.
In total, U.S. employers added around 143,000 new jobs last month, while the nation’s employment rate dropped from 4.1% to 4%. That figure is the lowest it has been since the early summer of last year.
Various demographic group unemployment figures, said the BLS report, “showed little or no change in January,” with the unemployment rate for white workers holding at 3.5%, Blacks at 6.2%, Hispanics at 4.8%, and Asians at 3.7% all remaining static when compared with December.
In a separate document released by the Department of Labor it was noted that the “advance figures for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 219,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week’s revised level.” A four-week moving average came in at 216,750 jobs, up by 4,000 new jobs from the previous week’s revised average.
While that 4% unemployment rate is regarded as more good than bad, the figure is higher than where things stood in January of 2023 when the rate had fallen to 3.4%, but significantly lower than the 6.3% of January 2021 when the nation was still struggling in a pandemic economy.
Although the latest figures are marginally on the gain side, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the new BLS reports reveals that the “Biden economy was far worse than anyone thought and underscores the necessity of President Trump’s pro-growth policies.”
Kevin Hassett, the new director of the National Economic Council, similarly remarked: “The truth is that we’re inheriting a very difficult job because of Joe Biden’s terrible policies.”
A different perspective was voiced by Sarah House, Wells Fargo senior economist, in an interview with the Financial Times. “When we step back and look at the trends,” she remarked, “this is still pointing to a very healthy labor market.”
Overall, the nation’s construction industry saw a gain in the nonresidential building segment of 1,100 over December of 2024, and a 1,900 increase in residential building. Job losses of 2,300 were posted in the heavy and civil engineering segment, with a decline of 2,100 in the residential specialty trade contractors segment.
February 10, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
