Investing.com – Non-farm payrolls (NFP) rose by 200,000 in January, according to official data released on Friday.
The data beat the consensus estimate for the creation of 184,000 jobs but was lower than 234,000 that the ADP report indicated on Wednesday.
December’s reading of NFP was revised to 160,000 from the initial 148,000 registered initially.
The jobless rate met expectations by holding steady at 4.1%.
Average hourly earnings advanced 0.3% month-on-month in January, in line with forecasts and the prior month’s increase.
On an annualized basis, wage inflation rose 2.9% in January.
That beat expectations for just a 2.6% increase.
The increase in wages is being closely monitored by the Federal Reserve for evidence of diminishing slack in the labor market and upward pressure on inflation. Economists generally consider an increase of 3.0% or more to be consistent with rising inflation.
Additionally, the private sector created more new job contracts than expected in January with a total of 196,000.
Analysts had forecast just 180,000 new jobs in the private sector..
December’s number was revised to an increase of 166,000 private nonfarm payrolls, from the prior reading of 146,000 jobs in the private sector.
Government payrolls increased by 4,000 last month.
In December, 6,000 government jobs were destroyed which was a downward revision from the initial reading of the creation of 2,000 public positions.
The participation rate remained unchanged at 62.7% in January.
The U-6 unemployment rate, that includes those workers who are working part-time for purely economic reasons, increased to 8.2% last month from December’s reading of 8.1%.
Furthermore, the average weekly hours dropped to 34.3 in January.
That missed expectations for them to remain stable at 34.5.