By Tom Burnett CFA
On February 4, 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the employment picture for the month of January. Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 467,000 in January. The average monthly gain in 2021 was 555,000. The unemployment rate rose from 3.9% in December to 4.0% in January. The number of unemployed workers was little changed at 6.5 million, down by 3.7 million over the past year. That figure compares to 5.7 million in February 2020, prior to the Covid-19 outbreak which quickly brought on a recession and led to material job losses. Nonfarm payroll employment has now increased by 19.1 million since the April 2020 low figure. It is still down from the February 2020 high level by 2.9 million. Basically, from a top of 155 million, total nonfarm payroll employment dropped to 133 million and is now back up to 152 million.
Manufacturing employment was little changed from the prior month. Average hourly earnings for private nonfarm employees increased by $0.23 to $31.63, up by 5.7 percent from the year-ago figure.
The next report will be issued on March 4, 2022.
Tom Burnett CFA is Director of Research