The U.S. Labor
Department reported on Friday that nonfarm payrolls rose by 353,000 in January 2024
after an upwardly revised 333,000 jump (from 216,000) in December 2023. This
marked the strongest monthly increase since January 2023 (+472,000).
According to
the report, the largest jobs increases occurred in professional and
business services (+74,000), health care (+70,000), retail trade (+45,000), and
social assistance (+30,000). Meanwhile, employment fell in the mining,
quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry (-5,000). and was little changed
in such industries as construction, wholesale trade, transportation and
warehousing, financial activities, leisure and hospitality, and other services.
The
unemployment rate stood at 3.7 per
cent in January, unchanged from the previous two months.
Economists had predicted
the nonfarm payrolls to increase by 180,000 and the jobless rate to edge up to
3.8 per cent.
The labour
force participation rate held steady at 62.5 per cent in January, while hourly earnings for
private-sector workers climbed by 0.6 per cent m-o-m (or $0.19) to $34.55, following an unrevised 0.4 per cent m-o-m jump in December. This represented the sharpest monthly advance since
March 2022 (+0.6 per cent m-o-m). Economists had forecast the average hourly earnings to rise by 0.3 per cent
m-o-m in January. Over the year, the average hourly earnings soared 4.5 per
cent in January, following an upwardly revised
4.4 per cent surge (from +4.1 per cent) in the previous month. This represented the steepest gain since September 2023 (+4.5 per cent). Economists
had foreseen the annual wage to increase by 4.1 per cent in January.
The
average workweek decreased
0.2 hour to 34.1 hours last month, below
economists' forecast of 34.3 hours.