The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its January 2024 Report, so let’s take a look at how employment fared over the last month.
The great news is:
In January, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 353,000 people.
Health care, retail trade, professional and business services, and social assistance garnered the largest share of new jobs in January.
In January, average hourly earnings for private non-farm payroll jobs increased by 0.6%, or 19 cents, to $34.55. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.5%.
The good news is:
In January, the unemployment rate remained at 3.7%, or 6.1 million people, for the third month in a row.
The number of people not in the labor force who currently want a job increased to 5.8 million people. Keep in mind, these 5.8 million people were not counted as unemployed because they were unavailable to take a job or were not actively looking for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
The average work week for private non-farm payroll employees decreased by 0.2 hours to 34.1 hours in January.
The bad news is:
The number of long-term unemployed, people who were without a job for 27 weeks or more, increased slightly to 1.3 million people, accounting for 20.8% of total unemployed persons.
There was little change to the labor force participation rate, at 62.5%, which has shown little change over the past year.
The number of discouraged workers who believed there were no jobs available to them increased slightly to 452,000 people.