US Adds 30K Jobs in January, Unemployment Falls After Tepid 2025 скачать в хорошем качестве

US Adds 30K Jobs in January, Unemployment Falls After Tepid 2025

US payrolls rose in January by the most in more than a year and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell, suggesting the labor market continued to stabilize at the start of 2026. Employers added 130,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate declined to 4.3%, according to Wednesday's Bureau of Labor Statistics data. That followed revisions to the prior year, which showed a marked slowdown in hiring. Job gains averaged just 15,000 a month last year, down from the initially reported 49,000 pace. Constance Hunter, Chief Economist at the EIU, joins Bloomberg Businessweek Daily to discuss. She speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. The report suggests the labor market is finding its footing after the most anemic year for hiring outside of a recession since 2003. While economists expect hiring to remain generally sluggish in 2026, more clarity around the impact of President Donald Trump’s economic policies and lower borrowing costs could encourage some employers to boost headcount. The January data reinforces Federal Reserve officials’ inclination to keep interest rates on hold for now. Many traders appeared to push out their timeline for the next rate cut to July from June. Read More: US Wraps Up Worst Non-Recession Year for Hiring Since 2003 In leaving rates unchanged last month, Chair Jerome Powell cited signs of steadying in the job market.  “Coming off of a hiring recession in 2025, this is welcome news,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “I think Fed Chair Powell was right — the labor market appears to be stabilizing.” The US labor market is coming off one of its worst years for hiring in decades. Revisions to employment figures showed the nation added 181,000 jobs in 2025, the lowest annual total outside of recession years since 2003. That averaged out to just 15,000 job gains per month, down from an initially reported 49,000 pace, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data out Wednesday. Trump praised the numbers in a social media post Wednesday and said the US should have the lowest interest rates globally, adding to previous calls for rate reductions. “GREAT JOBS NUMBERS, FAR GREATER THAN EXPECTED!” he wrote.  With the release of each January employment report, BLS benchmarks payrolls to a more accurate but less timely series called the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. That data is based on state unemployment insurance tax records and covers most US jobs. That adjustment showed job growth was nearly 900,000 lower in the 12 months through March 2025 than initially reported. The figure roughly aligned with what the BLS’s preliminary estimate suggested. The pickup in January hiring was led by health care, which added the most jobs since 2020 and accounted for the majority of overall job growth in 2025. Construction and professional and business services also added jobs, while manufacturing saw the first monthly gain in employment in more than a year. Federal government payrolls continued to decline. Read More: First Factory Jobs Gain Since 2024 Offers Hope of Recovery “It’s great that health care is growing the way it is, but I would feel much better if we were seeing broader strength,” said Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at Indeed Hiring Lab. “It is quite lopsided growth.” Though layoffs remain generally constrained, there’s been a wave of job-cut announcements by companies like Amazon.com Inc. to United Parcel Service Inc. in recent weeks. And heading into this year, job openings across the economy dropped to the lowest level since 2020. -------- Watch Bloomberg Radio LIVE on YouTube Weekdays 7am-6pm ET WATCH HERE: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF Follow us on X:   / bloombergradio   Subscribe to our Podcasts: Bloomberg Daybreak: http://bit.ly/3DWYoAN Bloomberg Surveillance: http://bit.ly/3OPtReI Bloomberg Intelligence: http://bit.ly/3YrBfOi Balance of Power: http://bit.ly/3OO8eLC Bloomberg Businessweek: http://bit.ly/3IPl60i Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app: Apple CarPlay: https://apple.co/486mghI Android Auto: https://bit.ly/49benZy Visit our YouTube channels: Bloomberg Podcasts:    / bloombergpodcasts   Bloomberg Television:    / @markets   Bloomberg Originals:    / bloomberg   Quicktake:    / @bloombergquicktake