Just under 380,000 new jobs were added to the nation’s payrolls in January, in a trend outpacing the predictions of many of the nation’s economists.
Described by the Los Angeles Times as “surprisingly robust,” the job growth was seen in nearly all sectors of the economy and represented a significant increase over January’s 166,000 jobs increase.
According to the Department of Labor, the nation’s unemployment rate, at more than 14% last spring, is now down to 6.2%.
An analysis of the new numbers issued by the Labor Department said that “most of the job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality,” with smaller gains in temporary health services, health care and manufacturing.
The construction, education, and mining sectors saw employment declines.
The report added that although the overall unemployment rate and the number of unemployed people are “much lower than their April 2020 highs, they remain well above their pre-pandemic levels in February 2020.”
In February of 2020, the unemployment rate was at a historic low of 3.5%.
The leisure and hospitality fields saw the greatest increase at about 355,000 new jobs, which the Labor Department attributes to an easing of pandemic-related restrictions in some parts of the country.
Temporary help workers were up by 46,000; followed by health care employment, with a 20,000 job gain.
On the downside, the construction industry recorded a loss of 61,000 jobs in February. According to the Labor Department, those numbers reflect a decline in both nonresidential specialty trade contractors as well as heavy and civil engineering construction.
Notes the Labor Department analysis: “Severe winter weather across much of the country may have held down employment in construction,” adding that overall employment in the industry is now off by around 308,000 compared with where it was a year ago.
Reacting to the new numbers, Ken Simonson, chief economist with the Associated General Contractors, remarked: “Despite recovery in some parts of the economy, private nonresidential construction is still experiencing many cancelled and postponed projects and few new starts.”
Anirban Basu, chief economist with the Associated Builders and Contractors, had a positive take on the latest numbers, noting that they were impacted by the interruption of projects in the South due to the colder-than-usual weather.
“The balance of the economy appears to be outperforming expectations in terms of labor market recovery,” continued Basu in a statement, “and there is now growing evidence that more pervasive vaccinations are beginning to shape economic outcomes for the better.”
By Garry Boulard
