Tag Archives: January jobs report

The Latest Economic Numbers

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On Wednesday, CNBC posted an article about the January Jobs Report.

The article reports:

  • Nonfarm payrolls increased by 130,000 for January, above the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 55,000.
  • The unemployment rate edged lower to 4.3%. A more encompassing measure slipped to 8%, down 0.4 percentage point from December.
  • As has often been the case for the U.S. labor market, health care led job gains in December, adding 82,000 positions. Social assistance also rose, up 42,000, while construction added 33,000.
  • The BLS also released final benchmark revisions for the year prior to March 2025. Those numbers saw the initial counts revised lower by a total 898,000, about in line with expectations.

The Workforce Participation Rate eased up slightly in January to 62.5.

The article at CNBC concludes:

However, the December numbers provide some reason for optimism.

While the establishment survey showed more jobs than expected, the household survey was even stronger. Used to calculate the unemployment rate, the survey showed a gain of 528,000 workers for the month as the labor force participation rate edged higher to 62.5%.

The data likely solidifies the Federal Reserve staying on hold with interest rates.

Futures traders raised bets that the Fed would hold the line at its March meeting, though the expectation is still titled toward a cut in June, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch gauge.

PJ Media also posted an article on the Jobs Report on Wednesday, but had a slightly different angle.

PJ Media notes:

The growth is focused on the private sector, which is good news because it is the private sector that drives economic growth. In fact, federal employment is at its lowest level as a share of the workforce since 1966. While economists expected private payrolls to grow by 70,000, the actual number is 172,000 for January. Government payrolls lost 42,000 jobs at both the state and federal levels combined.

…The economy added 5,000 manufacturing jobs, which is the opposite of economists’ prediction that it would lose 5,000 jobs, according to Fox Business. Job numbers for November and December were revised down, however, for a loss of about 17,000 jobs from the original statistics over those two months.

The DOL also announced on Feb. 10, “For the first time since 1999, U.S. steel production has surpassed Japan’s.” This is very important. For too long, we have been shipping our manufacturing overseas, especially to hostile nations like Communist China, leaving ourselves dependent on the whims of foreign leaders. Boosting American manufacturing is a necessary move for our independence and national security.

We are not yet where we need to be, but we are heading in the right direction.

The Numbers That Are Not Being Shared By The Mainstream Media

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On Thursday, Fox Business posted the following headline:

Layoffs surged 136% in January to second-highest level on record

The article reports:

The pace of job cuts by U.S. employers accelerated at the start of 2024, a sign the labor market is starting to deteriorate in the face of ongoing inflation and high interest rates.

That is according to a new report published by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which found that companies planned 82,307 job cuts in January, a substantial 136% increase from the previous month. However, that is down about 20% from the same time one year ago. It marked the second-highest layoff total for the month of January in data going back to 2009.

“Waves of layoff announcements hit U.S.-based companies in January after a quiet fourth quarter,” said Andy Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The cuts were “driven by broader economic trends and a strategic shift towards increased automation and AI adoption in various sectors, though in most cases, companies point to cost-cutting as the main driver for layoffs.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the workforce participation rate has remained steady since December at 62.5, down from 62.8 in November. Generally hiring is up in November due to Christmas shoppers.

The article concludes:

Another source of layoffs in January was retail stores, which trimmed 5,364 positions in January, a significant increase from the 110 layoffs announced in December. 

The top reason cited for job cuts last month was restructuring; companies blamed stores closing and artificial intelligence for the layoffs, as well.

The labor market has remained historically tight over the past year, defying economists’ expectations for a slowdown. Although economists say it is beginning to normalize after last year’s blistering pace, it is nowhere near breaking. 

The findings precede the release of the more closely watched January jobs report from the Labor Department on Friday morning, which is expected to show that employers hired 180,000 workers, following a gain of 216,000 in December. 

The unemployment rate is expected to inch higher to 3.8%.

As more people are laid off, there will be less demand for consumer goods. This theoretically will slow inflation, but at the cost of the American people. If the government truly wanted to slow inflation without hurting the average American, they would cut government spending, but that is not likely to happen.

Lying With Statistics (Calling Them ‘Adjustments’)

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On Saturday, The American Thinker posted an article about the economic numbers the Biden administration is currently bragging about. President Biden has tamed inflation and created massive growth in the economy–or so he says. I wonder how Americans who are paying double for gasoline and more than double to heat their homes feel about being told how great the economy is. I expect to hear how well we are doing in the State of the Union address, but I truly wonder if Americans will actually believe what they are told.

The American Thinker reports:

Bloomberg, which exists to serve active traders on Wall Street, is throwing shade on the January jobs report that “surprised” a lot of people with its positive numbers. Before addressing the technical factors used to produce the rosy numbers, consider the buried lede hundreds of words into the piece: Stripped of all the technical jargon is this stark reality:

On an unadjusted basis, payrolls actually fell by 2.5 million last month.

The article continues:

Molly Smith writes:

Employers added 517,000 jobs in January — nearly double the prior month’s advance and above all estimates in a Bloomberg survey. The unemployment rate also unexpectedly retreated to 3.4%, the lowest since 1969, according to Labor Department data released Friday.

Those are the numbers that grabbed headlines and enabled Team Biden to claim credit for what they want to bamboozle the public into thinking we have a great economy.  But it turns out that there were changes in the way the data were gathered and reported that made things look rosier:

…“If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it is too good to be true — the gain is mostly due to seasonal factors and revisions to past data. Still, it can’t be denied that the labor market remains tight. The Fed won’t place too much weight on this headline jobs number when formulating policy.”
— Anna Wong and Eliza Winger, economists

Hang on to your hats. I truly believe that 2023 may be a difficult year economically for all Americans. I believe we will get through it, but I believe there will be serious economic challenges for both individuals and for the nation.