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Employers added 143,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate was 4 percent

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 The pace of hiring slowed in January, as wildfires and snowstorms suppressed some industries and as the Federal Reserve signaled a pause in its course of interest rate cuts, creating a headwind to growth.

A total of 143,000 jobs were added in January, the Labor Department reported on Friday, while the unemployment rate edged down to 4 percent.

The fresh numbers suggest that the labor market may be losing momentum heading into the second administration of President Trump, whose policy agenda — including sharp cuts to federal payrolls and large-scale deportations of unauthorized migrants — could affect both employment and the availability of workers.

  • Job openings moving sideways: After a surge in 2021 and 2022, the job opening rate has sunk back to its 2019 level but remains above the historical average. The number of people quitting and being laid off similarly shows a slow-moving job market.

  • Workers still earning more: Another measure of total compensation shows that employers are still dishing out wage increases and solid benefits, though the pace has leveled off in recent quarters. Impressive productivity growth has helped to sustain the improving pay packages.

  • Little bearing on the Fed: The Federal Reserve’s rate-setting committee doesn’t meet until next month when it will have more data — including another jobs report — to help shape its decision on whether to resume cutting interest rates.



Beijing’s progress in implementing its “Made in China 2025” (MIC2025) strategy for industrial modernization over the past decade is raising fresh alarms in Washington, with a congressional panel using it on Thursday to warn that the US is at risk of falling behind as China takes unexpected strides in the realms of artificial intelligence (AI) and humanoid robotics.

In response, Washington should strive to boost tech ties with allies and ease visa rules for Chinese STEM talent, analysts urged on Thursday during an online hearing – dubbed “Made in China 2025 – Who is winning?” – held by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which monitors and reports on the national security risks of bilateral trade and economic ties.

“Beijing has obliterated the myth that used to prevail in Washington a few years ago that China can’t innovate – that it can only borrow and steal technology,” said Liza Tobin, managing director at Garnaut Global, a geopolitical-risk advisory firm, during the hearing.

In her written testimony to the commission, she warned: “We are unprepared to sustain a prolonged conflict with our primary strategic rival. The US defense industrial base now depends on a potential adversary for critical inputs, from rare earth minerals to advanced electronics and even the energetic materials used in explosives for weapons.”

“We risk losing the next industrial revolution, which is unfolding as AI converges with physical industry to transform how things are made,” Tobin added.

China launched the MIC2025 plan in 2015 to drive self-reliance and innovation across 10 key industries. As of April, the country had achieved 86 percent of its targets, according to the Post’s calculations.
Given the focus on public sector employment this week, it’s worth noting that government employment rose 32,000 in January, not far off the average monthly gain in 2024 of 38,000.
Average hourly earnings blew away all the estimates, at 0.5% versus the median of 0.3%. The highest forecast in the survey of 62 had 0.4%.
The sectors that did the most hiring included health care, retail trade, and social assistance.



Jobs were lost in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry.
Job gains in November and December were both revised up sharply, by a combined 100,000 jobs.
Education and health are again a major part of the increase in payrolls. Remember that these categories were decimated during the pandemic, and they have been recovering steadily for some time now. This category was up by 61,000 for January.
The African American unemployment rate, at 6.2% in January, is well above the 5.3% from a year ago.
The household survey for January has incorporated new population estimates. (These don’t apply to prior months.)

We see what looks like a big jump in the size of the overall labor force here -- more than 2 million people. But this is likely reflecting the statisticians’ incorporating the increased estimates of immigrants that economists have been talking about for some time now.
The manufacturing sector added 3,000 jobs, which that gels with factory activity data that expanded last month for the first time since 2022 as orders ramped up and production quickened.

It remains to be seen how the threat of tariffs on Canada and Mexico and the new duties on China will impact this number in the months ahead. Trump says his trade policy will drive investment, but skeptics say it will weigh on business confidence.
So these numbers aren’t directly comparable, because January’s population contours incorporate revised figures but December’s do not, but here’s the ethnic breakdown on the unemployment rates:
  • The White jobless rate was 3.5%; in December, it was 3.6%.
  • The Black jobless rate was 6.2%; in December, it was 6.1%.
  • The Hispanic jobless rate was 4.8%; in December, it was 5.1%.
  • The Asian jobless rate was 3.7%; in December, it was 3.5%.

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