Employers Add 227,000 Jobs in January

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 227,000 in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday; the unemployment ticked up slightly to 4.8 percent.

BLS revised downward total nonfarm payroll employment for November from +204,000 to +164,000 and revised up December numbers from +156,000 to +157,000, for a 39,000 net lower than previously reported. Over the past three months, job gains averaged 183,000 per month.

Both the number of unemployed persons, at 7.6 million, and the unemployment rate, at 4.8 percent, were little changed in January. In January, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged at 1.9 million and accounted for 24.4 percent of the unemployed. Over the year, the number of long-term unemployed has declined by 244,000.

BLS said after accounting for annual adjustments to the population controls, the civilian labor force increased by 584,000 in January and the labor force participation rate rose by 0.2 percentage point to 62.9 percent. Total employment, as measured by the household survey, rose by 457,000 over the month; and the employment-population ratio edged up to 59.9 percent.

The report said the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.4 hours in January. In manufacturing, the workweek edged up by 0.1 hour to 40.8 hours, while overtime edged down by 0.1 hour to 3.2 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls was 33.6 hours for the sixth consecutive month.

Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 3 cents to $26.00, following a 6-cent increase in December. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.5 percent. In January, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 4 cents to $21.84.

John Silvia, chief economist with Wells Fargo Securities, Charlotte, N.C., said the broad-based strength of payroll growth was tempered by “disappointing” wage growth, which further supports a call for the Federal Open Market Committee to raise the federal funds rate in June.

“The rise in the unemployment rate reflected an increase in the labor force participation rate to 62.9 percent from 62.7 percent in December,” Silvia said. “While still within the Fed’s estimates of full employment, the uptick in unemployment supports Chair [Janet] Yellen’s case that the labor market still has some ‘room to run’ and our call that the Fed will still move cautiously this year.”