Teh One Who Knocks
02-01-2019, 02:15 PM
By Megan Henney | FOXBusiness
https://i.imgur.com/3JzMWPN.jpg
U.S. employers added 304,000 jobs in January, soaring past Wall Street’s expectations for an increase of 165,000 jobs, seemingly brushing off a 35-day government shutdown as investors braced for mixed results.
The unemployment rate climbed to 4 percent from 3.9 percent, while the labor force participation rate rose slightly to 63.2 percent. Average hourly earnings, meanwhile, rose by 3 cents to $27.56. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by a total of 85 cents, or about 3.2 percent.
“The monthly average over the previous three months has been an impressive 254,000 jobs added,” said Mark Hamrick, the chief economist for Bankrate.com, ahead of Friday's release. “Don’t be surprised if we see something less robust. That doesn’t necessarily signal a dramatic change in the trend for the job market or the U.S. economy.”
Jobs numbers follow a report released on Wednesday from payroll processing firm ADP, which revealed the private sector added 213,000 jobs in December, beating analysts’ expectations of 178,000 jobs.
Analysts anticipated that unemployment would hold steady at 3.9 percent, one of the lowest numbers in nearly 50 years, while forecasting the creation of 165,000 jobs, according to economists polled by Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters). In December, the U.S. economy added a whopping 312,000 jobs, blowing past Wall Street's expectations. Analysts, at the time, had cast that number as unsustainable.
Initially, the White House was bracing for a potentially negative jobs number in January when the Department of Labor releases the payroll data. However, U.S. labor officials said last week they would count the once-furloughed workers as employed because they’re getting paid retroactively once the government is up and running again.
https://i.imgur.com/3JzMWPN.jpg
U.S. employers added 304,000 jobs in January, soaring past Wall Street’s expectations for an increase of 165,000 jobs, seemingly brushing off a 35-day government shutdown as investors braced for mixed results.
The unemployment rate climbed to 4 percent from 3.9 percent, while the labor force participation rate rose slightly to 63.2 percent. Average hourly earnings, meanwhile, rose by 3 cents to $27.56. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by a total of 85 cents, or about 3.2 percent.
“The monthly average over the previous three months has been an impressive 254,000 jobs added,” said Mark Hamrick, the chief economist for Bankrate.com, ahead of Friday's release. “Don’t be surprised if we see something less robust. That doesn’t necessarily signal a dramatic change in the trend for the job market or the U.S. economy.”
Jobs numbers follow a report released on Wednesday from payroll processing firm ADP, which revealed the private sector added 213,000 jobs in December, beating analysts’ expectations of 178,000 jobs.
Analysts anticipated that unemployment would hold steady at 3.9 percent, one of the lowest numbers in nearly 50 years, while forecasting the creation of 165,000 jobs, according to economists polled by Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters). In December, the U.S. economy added a whopping 312,000 jobs, blowing past Wall Street's expectations. Analysts, at the time, had cast that number as unsustainable.
Initially, the White House was bracing for a potentially negative jobs number in January when the Department of Labor releases the payroll data. However, U.S. labor officials said last week they would count the once-furloughed workers as employed because they’re getting paid retroactively once the government is up and running again.