The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is today reporting a marginal decline in the national unemployment rate for January 2023.

The unemployment rate decreased to 3.4 per cent owing to non-farm payroll employment increasing by 517,000 in January arising from gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services and health care. These industries saw the most job growth overall.

Government employment increased as well, in part due to the workers’ return from a strike. In January, there were 5.3 million people, who are currently looking for work but are not actively participating in the labour force.

Due to their inactivity or inability to accept a job offer during the four weeks before the poll, these people were not counted as unemployed.

Household survey data

The BLS reports that in January, there was little change in either the unemployment rate or the total number of unemployed people, both of which were 5.7 million. Since early 2022, there hasn’t been much of a net change in the unemployment rate.

Adult men (3.2 per cent), adult women (3.1 per cent), teens (10.3 per cent), Whites (3.1 per cent), Blacks (5.4 per cent), Asians (2.8 per cent), and Hispanics (4.5 per cent) were the key worker categories with the lowest unemployment rates in January. There were 1.9 million fewer people unemployed for less than five weeks.

Long-term unemployment, defined as being out of work for 27 weeks or longer, remained at 1.1 million, largely unchanged. In January, 19.4 per cent of all unemployed people were long-term jobless.

After accounting for the effects of the annual modifications to the population controls, both the employment-population ratio (60.2 per cent) and the labour force participation rate (62.4 per cent) in January remained constant. These metrics haven’t changed much since the beginning of 2022 and are still below their pre-pandemic values from February 2020. (at 63.3 per cent and 61.1 per cent, respectively).

Part-time workers

At 4.1 million, the BLS reports that the number of people working part-time for economic reasons did not significantly change in January. Due to their reduced hours or inability to acquire full-time employment, these people, who preferred full-time employment, were working part-time jobs.

The number of people, who were marginally tied to the labour force amounted to 1.4 million, which did not change much in January among those, who wanted a job but were not currently in it. These people desired a job, were available to work, and had sought one at some point in the previous 12 months but they hadn’t done so in the four weeks before the poll.

At 342,000, the number of discouraged workers—a subset of the marginally attached who thought there were no jobs available for them throughout the course of the month similarly showed little change. 

Employment by professions

Professional, scientific, and technical services saw the largest increase in employment (82,000), followed by business and professional services (+41,000). In 2022, professional and business services saw an average monthly job gain of 63,000. In January, there were 74,000 more people working for the government.

Because of the return of university employees following a strike, employment in state government education surged by 35,000. The health care sector gained 58,000 positions. Ambulatory health care services (+30,000), nursing homes and residential care facilities (+17,000), and hospitals (+11,000) all had job increases.

Health care will add 47,000 jobs per month on average in 2022. Following a year of modest net growth (an average of +7,000 per month) in 2022, retail employment increased by 30,000 in January.

A decrease in health and personal care shops countered some of the employment growth in general merchandise retailers (+16,000) and furniture, home furnishings, electronics, and appliance retailers (+7,000) in January (-6,000). The construction industry generated 25,000 jobs, primarily due to an increase in specialist trade contractors’ employment (+12,000).

In 2022, the construction sector added 22,000 jobs each month on average. Similar to the industry’s average monthly rise in 2022, transportation and warehousing created 23,000 jobs. Transportation support activity employment climbed by 7,000 over the course of the month.

Social assistance employment climbed by 21,000 in January, about in line with the average gain of 19,000 jobs each month predicted through 2022. In January (+19,000), the employment in manufacturing remained on the rise.

Manufacturing will increase employment by 33,000 jobs monthly on average in 2022. Other significant industries, such as mining, quarrying, and oil and gas production; wholesale trade; information; financial activities; and other services; exhibited minimal change in employment over the course of the month.