Economic Data and Growth

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 130,000 in January, coming in above expectations. At the same time, the unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percentage point from December to 4.3% in January, while the labor force participation rate ticked up 0.1 percentage point to 62.5%. In addition, the establishment employment survey was revised as a result of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual benchmarking process and the updating of seasonal adjustment factors. As a result of the annual benchmark revision, the employment levels from April 2024 to March 2025 were revised downward by 898,000 nonfarm jobs and 98,000 manufacturing jobs.

Manufacturing employment increased by 5,000 in January after 13 consecutive months of declines. On the other hand, the collective job losses in November and December of 10,000 were revised downward by 8,000 jobs to a decrease of 18,000 jobs. Manufacturing employment is down 82,000 over the year. Durable goods manufacturing employment rose by 9,000 in January, while nondurable goods employment fell by 4,000. The most significant gain in manufacturing in January occurred in transportation equipment manufacturing, which added 4,800 jobs over the month. Meanwhile, the most significant losses occurred in apparel manufacturing and chemical manufacturing, which shed 1,800 jobs each over the month.

The employment-population ratio inched up 0.1 percentage point from December to 59.8% in January but is down 0.3 percentage points from a year ago. Employed persons who are part-time workers for economic reasons declined by 453,000 from December to 4.89 million in January but are up from 4.48 million in January 2025. Native-born employment is down 1,195,000 from December but up 840,000 over the year. Meanwhile, foreign-born employment is up 565,000 over the month but down 97,000 over the year. At the same time, the native-born unemployment rate is up 0.4 percentage points over the year to 4.7% in January, while the foreign-born unemployment rate is down 0.1 percentage point to 4.5%.

Average hourly earnings for all private nonfarm payroll employees rose 0.4%, or 15 cents, reaching $37.17. Over the past year, earnings have grown 3.7%. The average workweek for all employees edged up 0.1 hour to 34.3 hours and by the same to 40.1 hours for manufacturing employees.