The January 2022 Jobs Report: What is the Current U.S. Employment Situation?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their monthly overview of the U.S. employment situation and January's data tells a surprising story. The Department of Labor’s jobs report examines a range of U.S. jobs data to gauge the overall health of the U.S. economy, specifically the number of jobs added, the unemployment rate, and what industries are hiring now.

The January jobs report shows significantly more jobs were added than many were expecting. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 467,000, outpacing the 150,000 numbers that economists projected. The January report also came with a major revision for December’s nonfarm payroll numbers, increasing its estimate to 510,000 from 199,000.

However, the unemployment rate did increase .1 percentage points to 4%, and the number of unemployed persons remained relatively unchanged in January at 6.3 million.

Here are some other key statistics from the Department of Labor’s jobs report:

• Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased to $31.63 in January. Over the past year, average hourly earnings have increased by 5.7%.
• In January, the share of employed persons who teleworked because of the pandemic increased to 15.4%.
• 6 million persons reported that they had been unable to work because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic. That’s almost double the 3.1 million in December, potentially showing the effect the Omicron variant is having on businesses.

January brought job gains for sectors including leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, retail trade, and transportation and warehousing. Many industries that had seen zero job growth last month rebounded in January, but not all. Here’s how industries were impacted:

Overall, the Department of Labor’s jobs report shows solid growth for the beginning of the year, and we are slowly approaching pre-pandemic levels of employment.

No matter what challenges or opportunities the labor market brings, find your next job or new hire on iHire.