Total US non-farm payroll employment rises by 143,000 in Jan 2025

Job gains occurred in health care, retail trade and social assistance.

Employment in retail trade increased by 34,000 in January. Job gains occurred in general merchandise retailers (plus 31,000) and furniture and home furnishings retailers (plus 5,000).

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.7 per cent), adult women (3.7 per cent), teenagers (11.8 per cent), Whites (3.5 per cent), Blacks (6.2 per cent), Asians (3.7 per cent), and Hispanics (4.8 per cent) showed little or no change in January.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more), at 1.4 million, changed little too. The long-term unemployed accounted for 21.1 per cent of all unemployed people in the month.

In January, both the labour force participation rate (62.6 per cent) and the employment-population ratio (60.1 per cent) were unchanged, after accounting for the annual adjustments to the population controls. Both measures have been relatively flat in recent months.

The number of people employed part time for economic reasons, at 4.5 million, changed little in January. These individuals would have preferred full-time employment but were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.

Government employment continued to trend up in January (plus 32,000), similar to the average monthly gain last year (plus 38,000).

Employment showed little change over the month in manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, a BLS release said.

In January this year, the average hourly earnings for all employees on private non-farm payrolls rose by 17 cents, or 0.5 per cent, to $35.87. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.1 per cent.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)