January Jobs Report Goes Beyond Expectations

Despite the government shutdown, the January jobs report shows excellent figures for the first month of the new year. According to the jobs report, over 304,000 jobs were added to the US economy last month. This comes in stark contrast to the under 200,000 job additions that analysts had expected. Even amid a government shutdown that left thousands of federal employees furloughed or working without pay, job growth has increased for the 100th consecutive month.

Although over 800,000 federal employees were furloughed or working without pay until January 25th, they all count as “employed” in the establishment survey, which produces the jobs numbers. The 380,000 workers that were furloughed and received no pay will be listed as “unemployed” in the household survey, which produces the national unemployment rate. The impact of the government shutdown on the broader federal contracted workforce may not be fully accounted for in the January jobs report.

Minimum wage increases were just put into effect in 20 states in January, pushing wage growth up as well. The job growth reflected in the January jobs report is overwhelmingly in the private sector, which may explain why the shutdown didn’t have a larger effect on the jobs market. The unemployment rate is expected to stay steady at around 3.9% going forward.

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5 years ago
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