January U.S. Jobs Report: 353,000 Rise in Payrolls, Well Above Expectations

The U.S. economy added 353,000 jobs in January, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The government’s report revised up previous estimates for new job creation in December and November.

The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%.

Economists had forecast that nonfarm payroll employment would rise 176,500 vs. an originally reported 216,000 increase in December, according to FactSet. The unemployment rate had been expected to rise to 3.8% from 3.7% in December.

January Jobs Report Key Stats

• Total nonfarm payrolls increased by 353,000 versus an upward revised 333,000 in December.
• The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%.
• Average hourly wages climbed by 0.6% to $34.55 after rising 0.4% in December.

In January, average hourly wages increased by 19 cents, or 0.6%, to $34.55. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.5%.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls fell to 34.1 hours in January, down from 34.3 in December. For manufacturing employees, the average workweek fell to 39.5 hours in January, and overtime fell to 2.6 hours. For production and nonsupervisory employees, the average workweek shortened to 33.1 hours from 33.8 the prior month.

This article was partially generated by Wordsmith, an automated smart-text platform, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The article has been reviewed by Morningstar editors.