- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ |
US saw surprisingly robust hiring in January despite Covid surge
The US economy brushed off a spike in Covid-19 infections to add 467,000 jobs in January, far better than expected and a potential sign that the pandemic's days of disrupting businesses are numbered.
Labor Department data released Friday also showed major industries hiring, overall employment gains for 2021 revised higher, and more people entering the workforce, which pushed the unemployment rate up slightly to four percent.
The report was good news for President Joe Biden, who has struggled to defend his economic policies as his approval ratings slid amid months of hiring data that failed to bring the surge in jobs he promised when taking office a year ago.
"We created 467,000 jobs in January. That's more than 6.6 million jobs since I took office," Biden tweeted, calling 2021 "the greatest year of job creation under any president in history."
Many economists expected the data to show either weak hiring or perhaps a contraction in employment because the United States was weathering a massive increase in Covid-19 infections in January, during the time the survey was taken.
The surprisingly positive report will likely bolster the Federal Reserve's belief that the economy is healthy enough to raise the interest rate off zero.
With inflation also high, top officials have strongly signaled that at their upcoming March meeting they will make their first rate increase since the coronavirus caused the economy to collapse nearly two years ago.
Analysts said the figures highlighted the economy's resilience.
"Omicron, Schmomicron," Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said. "These data make it clear that the labor market ahead of Omicron was much stronger than previously believed."
- Better than it seems -
Overall, the economy has added 19.1 million jobs since the nadir of the Covid-19 crisis in April 2020, but it is still short 2.9 million positions, the data said.
Beyond January's job growth, some economists say even better news was found in upward revisions the Labor Department announced to last year's payroll data.
These showed hiring in November and December -- months when the initial reports were surprisingly weak -- was a massive 709,000 positions higher than first reported.
"The bottom line is that the recovery has been faster and steadier than measured," Betsey Stevenson, an economics professor at the University of Michigan, said on Twitter.
However, the report said hiring was a total of only 217,000 positions higher for all of 2021, since some months' totals were revised lower.
Major industries that hired in January included the bars and restaurants that comprise the leisure and hospitality sector, which gained the most of any industry with 151,000 positions.
Professional and business services added 86,000 positions and retail trade 61,000.
The labor force participation rate, indicating the share of the US population working or looking for work, ticked up slightly to 62.2 percent, the data showed.
That metric had seen scant improvement over much of 2021, though its increase may also account for the rise in the unemployment rate from 3.9 percent in December.
There were however signs of the coronavirus's impact in the data, including a jump to six million in the number of people who said they couldn't work because their employer's business was closed or otherwise affected by the pandemic.
In December, only 3.1 million workers were in such a position.
O.Lorenz--BTB