Friday saw the release of the highly anticipated NFP (Non-farm Payrolls) data and the result easily surpassed market expectations.
The US department of labor revealed that the US added a total of 467,000 jobs in January. The latest data came after expectations were very low following the ADP report earlier in the week which showed a contraction of 307k against a market expectation for an increase of 201k.
The Labor Department also sharply revised up figures for the previous two months’ payrolls gains. December’s figures were revised upward to show an increase 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 big jump in revisions suggests that jobs growth in the world’s largest economy has been a lot stronger throughout the holiday season and the start of 2022 than had been previously thought.
NFP Data Not Quite as Rosy as it Seems?
Despite the big jump in revised previous months and a January NFP data which easily surpassed market expectations, there are chinks in the US jobs market.
The US jobless rate increased to 4.0% of the workforce, up from 3.9% in December. Also, the average weekly hours worked dropped to 34.5 from 34.7, reaching their lowest level since July 2020.
the Labor Department also data released on Friday which showed a record number of Americans, totaling more than 3.6 million, were unable to work due to illness during the week. This comes as the spread of the latest variant of COVID-19 sweeps through the US.
