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Topline
Despite economists warning the job market recovery may have weakened last month, the U.S. added back a surprisingly strong 467,000 new jobs in January, performing much better than experts were expecting after a record wave of Covid-19 cases.
People wait in line as city workers hand out take-home Covid-19 test kits in lower Manhattan on … [+] December 23.
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Key Facts
January’s job gains were significantly better than the roughly 150,000 new jobs economists had forecast, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department, and also exceeded the 199,000 jobs added by the economy in December.
Despite the better-than-expected report, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4%, compared to 3.9% in December, when the figure hit its lowest point in more than a year, and well above prepandemic levels of about 3.5%.
Key Background
Though waning Covid-19 infections helped usher in a streak of promising labor market developments in the fall, a recent uptick in cases—spurred by the highly contagious omicron variant—coincided with a disappointing jobs report for November and December, with the United States adding less than half of the jobs economists expected each month. In light of the Covid surge, the White House started warning the jobs data could be disappointing late last month. “If you think about omicron in early January, and the impact it was having in terms of the number of people who were out sick, we do expect there to be some real variation in the data,” Brian Deese, President Joe Biden’s top economic advisor, said last week, adding that Americans “need to be prepared for January employment data that could look a little strange.”
Further Reading
U.S. Lost 301,000 Private Jobs Amid January’s Omicron Surge—The Worst Monthly Showing Since 2020 (Forbes)
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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