Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 353,000 in January, and the unemployment rate remained at 3.7 per cent. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, retail trade, and social assistance. Employment declined in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction. In January, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by US19¢, or 0.6 per cent, to $US34.55. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.5 per cent.
The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased by 0.2 hour to 34.1 hours in January and is down by 0.5 hour over the year.said hiring has shifted into high gear. “In addition to the strength of hiring in January, the last two months were revised up by a total of 126,000, with most of that increase occurring in December (333,000 v 216,000 initially). This broke a trend of downward revisions seen throughout most of last year. Over the last three-months, payroll employment has increased by an average of a staggering 289,000 compared to 207,000 in Octobe