WASHINGTON, D.C. — Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 467,000 jobs in January, while the unemployment rate changed little from 3.9 percent in December to 4 percent in last month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The latest job figures released Friday morning by BLS were significantly higher than Dow Jones’ estimate of nonfarm payroll employment of 150,000, according to CNBC. In addition, BLS revised the job gains for November and December upward by a combined 709,000.
In January, job gains increased in leisure and hospitality (+151,000), professional and business services (+86,000), retail trade (+61,000) and in transportation and warehousing (+54,000). Additionally, employment in local government education increased by 29,000 last month but is still down by 359,000 from February 2020, a 4.4 percent difference. Jobs in healthcare increased by 18,000, and there was little change in employment for mining, construction, manufacturing, information, financial activities and other services.
Additionally, the amount of employed people who worked from home due to the pandemic increased to 15.4 percent. This follows news of the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and a high number of cases during the holidays in December. The labor force participation rate increased to 62.2 percent, which is the highest level the rate has been since March 2020, according to CNBC.