By Alicia Wallace, NCS
(NCS) — Hiring picked up as 2026 kicked into gear, with the US economy including a stronger-than-expected 130,000 jobs last month and the unemployment fee dropping to 4.3%, based on new Bureau of Labor Statistics knowledge launched Wednesday.
Economists have been anticipating that employers added about 75,000 jobs in January and that unemployment held regular at 4.4%, based on FactSet estimates.
Wednesday’s report, which was delayed a few days due to the temporary authorities shutdown, additionally supplied extra readability on current labor market tendencies: Job development last 12 months was far weaker than beforehand estimated.
The newest annual benchmark revision confirmed that there have been 898,000 fewer jobs added between April 2024 and March 2025. On a not seasonally adjusted foundation, the downward revision was 862,000.
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