Recently, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics came out with a report highlighting the state of employment in the United States during January 2024. Their report found that total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 350,000 last month, however, the unemployment remained the same at 3.7 percent.
This is the 3rd consecutive month that the unemployment rate has sat at 3.7 percent. The total number of unemployed people has also remained relatively unchanged, currently at 6.1 million.
The industries that saw significant job gains were professional and business services, health care, retail trade and social assistance. Professional and business services saw an uncharacteristic leap, adding 74,000 jobs, substantially larger than the average increase of 14,000 in 2023. Other notable jumps include health care, which added 70,000 jobs and retail employment, which saw 45,000 people join the workforce.
On the contrary, the mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction industries all saw a decline in jobs in January. The three industries declined by 5,000 in January after little change in 2023.
Many other rates have remained relatively unchanged during the month of January, with the number of long-term (jobless for 27 weeks or more) unemployed people holding steady at 1.3 million. The labor force participation rate also stayed the same, at 62.5 percent.
For better or worse, the labor market saw that much of its data showed little to no change, with most numbers remaining untouched from their spot in December 2023.