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U.S. Added 467,000 Jobs in January, Banishing Fears of Omicron Slump

Published 02/04/2022, 08:33 AM
Updated 02/04/2022, 08:41 AM
© Reuters

© Reuters

By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com -- The U.S. labor market defied fears of a Covid-driven slowdown in January, adding 467,000 nonfarm jobs in the month, well ahead of estimates. 

The Labor Department also sharply revised up figures for the previous two months' payrolls gains, suggesting that jobs growth has been a lot stronger through the holiday season and the start of 2022 than previously thought. December's figures were revised upward to show a rise of 510,000 jobs rather than the 199,000 originally reported, while November's gain was revised up even more sharply, to 647,000 from the 249,000 previously estimated.

The figures illustrate the difficulties of compiling statistics at a time when the pandemic, and businesses' responses to it, are still dominating economic activity. Despite a rise in layoffs over the last two months as the Omicron wave swept the U.S., the economy appears to have added nearly 1 million jobs in that time. 

In addition, wages continued to rise at a rate that suggests a buildup of inflationary pressure, as workers use their growing leverage with employers in a market characterized by staff shortages. Average hourly earnings rose by 0.7% on the month, rather than the 0.5% expected and their strongest increase since April last year. That took the annual rate of earnings growth up to 5.7%.

Even so, the jobless rate rose to 4.0% of the workforce, from 3.9% in December, and average weekly hours worked fell to 34.5 from 34.7, hitting their lowest since July 2020.

The details of the report suggested that at least some of the distortions created by the pandemic over the last two years are easing, with more workers returning to the labor force. The participation rate, which tracks the proportion of working-age people actually in work, rose to 62.2% from 61.9%, its highest level since April 2020. 

Paul Donovan, chief economist with UBS Wealth Management, said via Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) that there was a  "notable increase in the number of people taking part time jobs alongside full time" ones, a development which he argued could be due to lower-income groups looking to booster their income, having spent their pandemic savings.

Financial markets responded by pricing in more monetary policy tightening from the Federal Reserve. Money market futures fell to imply a 33% chance that the Fed will hike rates by 50 basis points in March, despite a number of comments from Fed officials this week playing down such a dramatic scenario. The interest-rate sensitive 2-Year Treasury note yield leaped another 11 basis points to 1.30%, while the 10-Year Treasury yield rose 9 basis points to 1.91%. The last time the 10-year yield was that high, the coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China, wasn't even known as Covid-19.

Latest comments

Too bad that all these articles are straight from the W. H.
lol that's nothing...how many people are still at home unemployed?  That's the real number. Don't fall for it hedge fund daddies just want to scalp you on their Friday so that they can go out to eat tomorrow, pay their yacht loan payment etc etc.
The data are released by US Dept of Labor every friday
The data don't include those not looking any longer JOE lol wake up listen to Fox and Learn something..Cnn is just pathetic .
Looks like "analysts" over-rigged their laughable "estimate"...Let the Friday FRAUD begin.
A little history: Tedros WHO declared a global emergency based on 89 deaths in the world, this is called farce? But it is the sad truth.
This and Amazon should make the market go up today but not the case
apparently this is entirely due to past revisions
how did the ADP Payroll not show this? not buying it
was this adjusted for seasonal workers?
This article is Nothing but a Pony Show ! Disgusting Math and Mirrors concept .
Prior was 100,000 more jobs Brandon... why lie to make the numbers sound good? I know it's the Demo soci alist way?
your president orange never lied to make the numbers sound better than they actually are?  if you believe that I have a friend from Kenya who wants to talk to you about some fantastic investment opportunities....
Your friend Oovvommitt no doubt another liar & chief. Trump didn't need to lie he had the best economy on Record Ever! FACT JOE!
"data for January 2022 reflect updated population estimates"...if you want to add jobs just estimate higher population
Or, why not just make up bogus population numbers...it's the american way.
US cooking the books, those numbers aren’t adding up
Totally skewed numbers….lmao
The US must be the only country that can add more jobs, and the unemployment rate goes up at the same time.
So 500,000 jobs are added based on a report... based on a guess.. based on.. ...well.. *****..based on people trying to sound smart..to people who think that listening to and reverberating such, makes them smart too..and has any effect on covid..and on a guised casino made to sound high class by calling it "investing"..just to get a majority of people to put money in one direction, and wherever the majority goes, they move the market away from and it's all an illusion, yet can be the easiest way to make money?..ok, just making sure we are on the same page.. lol. C'mon Seven!
why dont you just follow the trend? ... you will aways loos if you try to understand the market!!
Back to the 70's with high debt. Great
Lmao
The fed cannot raise interest rates. Either the dollar collapses or asset prices collapse take your pick
FED has no choice but to raise interest rates
inflation loop confirmed once again
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