The new year is starting off strong for anyone looking for a job.
Employers added a seasonally adjusted 257,000 jobs in January, said the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in its monthly report hailed by some economists to be the strongest in a long time.
Also significant was a revision of earlier estimates in November and December resulting in an additional gain of 147,000 jobs.
In January, the largest job increases were in retail, construction, healthcare, financial activities and manufacturing, areas closely tied to consumer confidence.
Retail added the most jobs, 46,000, many of them in sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores, motor vehicle and parts dealers and non-brick-and-mortar retailers.
The rebounding construction industry continued to add jobs, 39,000 for the month, followed by health care, which grew by 38,000 jobs. Of those, physician offices added 13,000 jobs, hospitals added 10,000 and nursing and residential care facilities added 7,000.
Employment in financial activities rose by 26,000 in January, mostly in areas of insurance, securities, commodity contracts and investments. The manufacturing sector added 22,000 jobs, particularly in motor vehicles and parts and wood products.
January’s unemployment rate held steady at 5.7 percent and has shown no net change since October. The number of people unemployed – 9 million – changed only slightly.
Among age groups, the jobless rate for teenagers increased 2 percent, to 18.8 percent in January compared with December.
Unemployment rates held about steady for adult men (5.3 percent), adult women (5.1 percent), whites (4.9 percent), blacks (10.3 percent) and Asians (4 percent).
The number of long-term unemployed – those who have been jobless for 27 weeks or more – also remained unchanged at 2.8 million. They account for about one-third of all unemployed.
Likewise, the number of people working part-time because their hours were cut or they couldn’t find full-time work also stayed about the same at 6.8 million. Another 682,000 people were categorized as being discouraged by the labor market and not looking for work, a figure down by 155,000 a year ago.
On the wage front, January saw a modest improvement over December but nothing dramatic. Average hourly earnings rose 12 cents to $25.75 following a decrease of 5 cents the prior month, for an increase of 2.2 percent over the past year.
However, January’s gain could signal that tightening job market could eventually lift wages across the board.
