Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 130,000 in January, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.3%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Job gains occurred in health care, social assistance, and construction, while federal government and financial activities lost jobs.
Both the unemployment rate, at 4.3%, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.4 million, changed little in January. These measures are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 4.0%, and the number of unemployed people was 6.9 million.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for teenagers declined to 13.6% in January. The jobless rates for adult men (3.8%), adult women (4.0%), and people who are White (3.7%), Black (7.2%), Asian (4.1%), or Hispanic (4.7%) showed little change over the month.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) changed little in January at 1.8 million but is up by 386,000 from a year earlier. The long-term unemployed accounted for 25.0% of all unemployed people in January.
Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.5%, and the employment-population ratio, at 59.8%, changed little in January. These measures have shown little change over the year.
The number of people employed part time for economic reasons decreased by 453,000 to 4.9 million in January but is up by 410,000 over the year.
