January Jobs Report Crushes Expectations With 304,000 New Jobs

January Jobs Report Crushes Expectations With 304,000 New Jobs

The economy added 304,000 jobs in January, the 100th month in a row with growth. Experts predicted only 107,000 jobs in January.

Labor force participation (LFP) is the highest it’s been since 2014 at 63.2%.

Average hourly wages only grew by 0.1%, but overall it’s up 3.2% from a year ago. The unemployment went up slightly from 3.9% to 4%.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Outside of the government, private-sector payrolls rose by 296,000. That is well above average gain in recent years, suggesting businesses largely shrugged off any impact from the 35-day shutdown ended Jan. 25. The Labor Department remained open because it was among the agencies funded by Congress earlier in 2018.

Hiring last month increased in nearly every major category. The leisure and hospitality sector, including restaurants, added 74,000 employees. Construction firms hired 52,000. The manufacturing, health-care and retail sectors also added jobs. Employment declined slightly in the information sector. Local and state governments added 7,000 jobs.

The LFP is the highest it’s been under President Donald Trump. From CNS News:

But the labor force participation rate increased a tenth of a point to 63.2 percent — the highest it’s been on President Trump’s watch.

In January, the nation’s civilian noninstitutionalized population, consisting of all people age 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, reached 258,239,000 (lower than it was last month). Of those, 163,229,000 participated in the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one.

The 163,229,000 who participated in the labor force equaled 63.2 percent of the 258,239,000 civilian noninstitutionalized population.

The participation rate was 62.9 percent when Trump took office, and it has showed little change since then, as retiring baby boomers offset additions to the nation’s workforce.

Despite the trade war, manufacturing is still growing. From CNN:

Manufacturing, especially in durable goods, continued what is now a two-year-long stretch of healthy growth. That comes despite mounting fears that President Donald Trump’s trade war is increasing prices and adding to uncertainty.

“When you look at the inflation data, you haven’t seen any downstream impacts on consumers,” says Curt Long, chief economist with the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions. “Even though tariffs are potentially disruptive for business confidence, they haven’t reached a level that would seriously damage the overall economy.”

Overall, professional services grew the most with health, hospitality, and construction following it.

Like I said, the unemployment rate went up to 4%, but you have to take the shutdown into consideration. This affected the jobs report because they did not report to work “during the survey week, the week that includes the 12th of the month.” That means the report counted them “as unemployed due to temporary layoff, in a separate survey of households that determines the unemployment rate.”

Previous unemployment graphs that separated people by race and sex showed a decline, but this one showed growth, especially with black men. That stat is at 7.1%, which is up from 5.8% in November.

More than likely this will change in February.

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