The U.S. economy added 467,000 jobs in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, more than triple what was expected.
The unemployment rate ticked up from 3.9% to 4.0%, still significantly below January 2021 when the unemployment rate was 6.3%.
Leisure and hospitality employment expanded by 151,000 jobs in January, including 108,000 jobs added in food services and drinking places. Retail trade employment also jumped, adding 61,000 jobs in January.
January saw the transportation and warehousing sector add 54,000 jobs, pushing the industry 542,000 jobs above where it was in February 2020. Other commercial real estate-related industries, including manufacturing and construction, saw little change over the month.
Here's how economists and others reacted to the January jobs report on Twitter.
BREAKING: The US economy ADDED 467,000 jobs in January despite the Omicron wave. This is way higher than expected.
— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) February 4, 2022
Big gains in leisure and hospitality, which added 151,000 in January.
The unemployment rate is 4% (slightly up from December, but for good reasons = more searching
This is a family feed but guys, FUCK YEAH. We're booming.
— Adam Ozimek (@ModeledBehavior) February 4, 2022
Revisions just added 700,000 jobs to the last two months!
— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) February 4, 2022
Where were all of these January job gains?
— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) February 4, 2022
It's pretty broad based (minus construction)
Restaurants +108,000
Biz +86,000
Retail +61,000
Warehouse/transport +54,000
Hotels +23,000
Public schools +29,000
Health care +18,000
Manufacturing +13,000
Daycare +5,600
Construction -5,000
The employment report shows massive jobs growth beating expectations. The big take away is that the economy is strong. And while millions of people may have been out sick at some point in January, they most didn't lose their job or go an entire payperiod without pay [1/x]
— Betsey Stevenson (@BetseyStevenson) February 4, 2022
January 2022 will be remembered as the month the virus ceased to be boss. It wreaked havoc & death at a terrible scale. But the economy no longer cares. People returned to the workforce. The economy added jobs. Wages rose. You would barely know it happened from the economic data.
— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) February 4, 2022
Among the unemployed, big increase in the number of people who have left their jobs. 952k people left their jobs in January, signaling people are still feeling good about job prospects amidst the peak of the surge.
— Kate Bahn (@LipstickEcon) February 4, 2022
And it appears that we are getting a few more people back into the #labor force: participation for workers 55 and over jumped last month. Maybe some of the recent retirees are beginning to make their way back to work? pic.twitter.com/T3SIfX5r0E
— Carl R. Tannenbaum (@NT_CTannenbaum) February 4, 2022
Hard to overstate the importance of January’s rise in the labor force. 1.4M workers entered, the biggest increase since June 2020. This should help ease the *very* tight jobs market. pic.twitter.com/1OBc3e7c18
— Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) February 4, 2022
#jobsday retail adds 61k in January, employment is now above pre-pandemic level
— Dean Baker (@DeanBaker13) February 4, 2022
Residential building is up 5.3% compared to pre-Covid, while nonresidential building remains 6.4% below. Avg hourly earnings of production & nonsupervisory employees in construction is the highest it's been since 1982 at 5.8% year over year growth. pic.twitter.com/pqgaL0zMVz
— Odeta Kushi (@odetakushi) February 4, 2022
Revisions are also changing the story on which industries have added the most jobs.
— Nick Bunker (@nick_bunker) February 4, 2022
The new leader: warehousing and storage. pic.twitter.com/xWFqKkGVbr
Why do we have such a fast recovery this time around when other recent recoveries have been so weak? ARPA ARPA ARPA ARPA ARPA. Fiscal policy at the scale of the problem is what was different this time around. Millions currently have jobs who wouldn’t if Congress hadn’t acted. 3/
— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) February 4, 2022
What we need now:
— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) February 4, 2022
1. President Biden continuing to increase every effort to control the virus & future variants. Probably won't matter much for the economy but matters for something much more important.
2. Fed rapidly reducing its extraordinary support for the economy.
The jobs report is a big ole green light for Fed tightening, to say the least.
— Neil Irwin (@Neil_Irwin) February 4, 2022
Investors are still betting on 5 quarter-point Federal Reserve rate increases this year—but the the odds of 6 or 7 are increasing. https://t.co/W8QSIGnJBI pic.twitter.com/hNLA5xlXin
— Jeanna Smialek (@jeannasmialek) February 4, 2022
Biggest question in the economy: how quickly can we raise supply? Bring more labor & capital to production & boost productivity. Success means more consumption & lower prices. The biggest obstacles remain COVID health risks at home and abroad.
— Aaron Sojourner (@aaronsojourner) February 4, 2022
I gotta run but, in sum,
— Aaron Sojourner (@aaronsojourner) February 4, 2022
- New & revised payroll estimates show strong, steady growth throughout last year, a turnaround from late 2020.
- Underlying Jan growth strong enough to shine despite omicron disruption, which showed up here mostly in disrupted hours.
