WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Joint Economic Committee released its Monthly Employment Update. In January, 130,000 jobs were added (+172K private sector jobs, and -42K government jobs), much stronger than the 48,000 jobs added in December and higher than the expected 68,000. The unemployment rate dropped slightly from 4.4 percent to 4.3 percent. Revised numbers from December show 2,000 fewer jobs gained than previously reported, while November dropped by 23,000 to 41,000 jobs added and October had a dismal month, losing 173,000 jobs. While today’s report reflects a strong showing for overall jobs added, federal government employment is at its lowest levels since 1966, and as a share of total nonfarm jobs, it is the lowest ever recorded.

The labor force participation rate ticked up slightly by 0.1 percentage points from December to end January at 62.5 percent. From December to January, for prime age (25-54 years) the rate hit the highest level since 2001, ending at 84.1percent, 0.6 percentage points higher than January 2025.

From December to January, the best performing sectors were private education and health services (+137K) and professional and business services (+34K). while the worst performing sectors were federal government (-34K) and financial activities (-22K).Year over year, The best performing sectors were private education and health services (+773K) and leisure and hospitality (+150K) and the worst performing sectors were federal government (-324K) and trade, transportation, and utilities (-195K).

From November to December, nonfarm job openings were down by 386,000 to 6.54 million, widening the gap between job openings and the number of unemployed (7.50 million). That said, hires and separations were almost even with nonfarm hires up 172,000 to 5.29 million, and nonfarm separations up 107,000 to 5.25 million.

Wages increased year over year. For all employees, average hourly earnings for the 12 months ending in January rose 3.71 percent while average weekly earnings increased 4.32 percent.

For the full Employment update and to see more details on the employment situation in each state, visit: https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/republicans/employment-update#seu 

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