Overview
- Employers added 130,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate edged down to 4.3%.
- Health care contributed 86,000 jobs—nearly two-thirds of the monthly gain—highlighting how concentrated the hiring has become.
- The annual benchmark revision reduced reported 2025 payrolls by more than 240,000, and CounterPunch reports the federal government shed 324,000 jobs over the year.
- EPI reports Black women’s employment rate fell to 55.7% in 2025, down 1.4 percentage points, with a decline of more than 3.5 points for those with college degrees.
- Economists questioned the breadth and reliability of the January data, and market pricing pushed expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts further out.