More than 74,000 new jobs, typically performed in offices, were created last month, contributing to an overall national employment increase of 353,000 new workers.
Those figures, just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, show the biggest job gainer in January as the professional and business services sector, followed by impressive increases in the health care, retail trade, and social assistance sectors.
The BLS survey noted that the increase in professional and business service jobs was “considerably higher than the average monthly increase of 14,000 jobs in 2023.”
Oher sector gainers in January: healthcare, up by 70,000 jobs; retail trade, up by 45,000; and professional, scientific, and technical services, seeing a gain of 42,000 jobs.
The January numbers were particularly impressive, given that December saw an equally strong gain of 216,000 jobs.
Noting that the nation’s unemployment rate in January stood at 3.7%, Julie Su, the Acting Secretary of Labor, remarked: “This continues a two-year trend of jobless rates under 4%, the longest stretch in more than 50 years.”
Su also noted that “employment in manufacturing also rose by 23,000 jobs in January,” contributing to an overall increase of 791,000 jobs in this sector since 2021.
Jobs in the construction sector posted an 11,000 gain in January. Altogether, the construction industry has seen an increase of 216,000 jobs since January of 2023.
In a statement, Anirban Basu, chief economist with the Associated Builders and Contractors, noted that the construction unemployment rate in January came in at 6.9%, “which is tied for the third lowest January rate on record.”
Basu added that “as a result of labor scarcity, construction wages surged in January, increasing at the fastest rate since July 2023.”
Despite the overall strong numbers, all is not rosy, as pointed out by the publication Forbes, reporting that a loss of nearly 3,000 high tech jobs contributed to a job loss of 80,000 nationally in January.
By Garry Boulard
