Jobs Report Comes in Strong for January, Weak for Last Year

U.S. job growth accelerated in January, with employers adding 130,000 positions and the unemployment rate edging down to 4.3 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.

The gain topped economists’ expectations for 75,000 new jobs, while the jobless rate was forecast to hold at 4.4 percent. It marked the strongest monthly increase since December 2024.

Hiring was concentrated in health care, which added 82,000 jobs, along with social assistance and construction. Job growth was held back partly by a reduction in federal government payrolls, which shed 34,000 positions. Manufacturing employment remained essentially unchanged since last month.

The report also noted solid wage growth. Average hourly earnings rose 0.4 percent to $37.17, up 3.7 percent from a year earlier.

But the BLS’s revisions to previous reports paint a weaker picture of 2025. The economy added just 181,000 jobs last year, far below the previously estimated 584,000. Payrolls were revised down by 898,000 between April 2024 and March 2025, leaving 2025 with an increase of only 15,000 jobs per month.

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