The January 2026 jobs report isn’t bad.
The economy added 130,000 jobs while the unemployment rate changed little at 4.3%.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revised its November report down by 15,000 to 41,000 jobs. December went down by 2,000 to 48,000.
I bet we see a downward revision of the January report in February. I mean, 25 of the last 26 jobs reports saw lower revisions. Yikes.
But hey, the private sector skyrocketed while federal jobs went down by 34,000!
“Since reaching a peak in October 2024, federal government employment is down by 327,000, or 10.9 percent,” according to the BLS.
The labor force participation rate went up to 62.5% from 62.4%.
Average hourly earnings rose by 15 cents (0.4%) to $37.17.
The major job gains came in health care, social assistance, and construction:
Health care added 82,000 jobs in January, with gains in ambulatory health care services (+50,000), hospitals (+18,000), and nursing and residential care facilities (+13,000). Job growth in health care averaged 33,000 per month in 2025.Employment in social assistance increased by 42,000 in January, primarily in individual and family services (+38,000).Construction added 33,000 jobs in January, reflecting an employment gain in nonresidential specialty trade contractors (+25,000). Employment in construction was essentially flat in 2025.
Financial activities lost 22,000 jobs, with 11,000 jobs coming from insurance carriers and related activities.
President Donald Trump wants more manufacturing in America. I know it will take time, but the country only added 5,000 new manufacturing jobs.
Unfortunately, the country barely added any jobs in 2025:
As we noted, the establishment survey data released today was re-benchmarked to reflect comprehensive counts of payroll jobs for March 2025. These counts are derived principally from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), which counts jobs covered by the Unemployment Insurance (UI) tax system. The benchmark process results in revisions to not seasonally adjusted data from April 2024 forward. Seasonally adjusted data from January 2021 forward are subject to revision. In addition, data for some series prior to 2021, both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted, incorporate other revisions.The seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment level for March 2025 was revised downward by 898,000. On a not seasonally adjusted basis, the total nonfarm employment level for March 2025 was revised downward by 862,000, or -0.5 percent.AS a result, the change in total nonfarm employment for 2025 was revised from +584,000 to +181,000 (seasonally adjusted), which means that the US barely generated any jobs in 2025, and that instead of creating 49K average jobs per month, the US only added 15K jobs.
We’ll get the inflation report on Friday.
[Featured image via YouTube]
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