Surprisingly strong jobs report: America adds 467,000 positions in January
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New York (CNN Business)America’s jobs recovery got an unexpected boost in January despite the Omicron variant spreading rapidly throughout the country.
The economy added 467,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday, significantly better than most economists had expected.
Restaurants and bars added more than 100,000 jobs. Logistics and business services jobs also increased.
However, the unemployment rate inched up to 4%, the first increase in the jobless rate since June 2021.
Still, the report blew expectations out of the water. The consensus forecast had been for only 150,000 jobs. Plenty of economists even expected job losses, warning that business closures and worker absenteeism in jobs without sick leave could lead to people being counted as unemployed. A similar dynamic played out last winter, when rising infections temporarily weighed on the jobs recovery in December 2020
On top of that, America is still in midst of a labor shortage. As of December, the nation had 10.9 million open jobs.
Even so, the Omicron variant left its mark on American workers last month. The number of people working remotely because of the virus increased to 15.4%, for example. Similarly, the number of people jobless for less than five week increased.
Recovery on track
The January report hammered home that the jobs recovery is still on track.
For President Joe Biden, it makes for a nice report card: The economy added 6.6 million jobs during his first 12 months in office, making it the best first year for a president ever.
Meanwhile, data revisions from the BLS showed that the winter jobs gains were much stronger than previously expected: Between November and December, the number of positions added was more than 700,000 jobs higher than initially reported. Similarly, jobs gains were stronger in January and February 2021 as well.
But over the summer, the revisions did the opposite. The employment change for June and July was more than 800,000 positions lower than previously reported.
This is a developing story. It will be updated
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