Economy started 2024 strong with 353,000 jobs in January

[mystery-ak]

Economy started 2024 strong with 353,000 jobs in January
By
Zachary Halaschak
February 2, 2024 8:33 am

The economy again beat expectations in January and added 353,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday morning, showing that the labor market started 2024 on strong footing after defying fears of a recession throughout 2023.

The unemployment rate stayed the same at 3.7%. Notably, the unemployment rate remains low by historical standards.

The continued employment growth is good news for the White House, which has been working to credit President Joe Biden for the strong job creation over recent months, characterizing the underlying strength of the labor market and broader economy as “Bidenomics” in action.

Both job creation and gross domestic product growth have maintained momentum despite the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes.

The Fed has carried out an at-times aggressive tightening cycle in response to the inflation that has roiled households over the past few years. Since the central bank began hiking in March 2022, annual inflation, as tracked by the consumer price index, has fallen from a peak of about 9% in June 2022 to just 3.4% in December.

The Federal Reserve announced a decision this week to keep its interest rate target steady, a move that led investors to push back the timeline for expected rate hikes to May.

more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/finance-and-economy/2832255/economy-started-2024-strong-jobsjanuary-employment-growth-slowed-to-xxx-in-january/

[Wingnut]

Those numbers are a lie....agian.  Wait for the revised number to show it falls way short of the 353,000 number.

[mystery-ak]

Those numbers are a lie....agian.  Wait for the revised number to show it falls way short of the 353,000 number.

I agree..but I don't think they will revise them...there has to be the appearance of a booming economy going into the election..problem is the average person doesn't feel it..

I may revise my opinion due to the hiring of holiday employees...then laid off in Jan..if true it will show in next month's report.

[mystery-ak]

The January Jobs Numbers Are Here
Spencer Brown

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the economy added 353,000 jobs in the first month of 2024, yet the unemployment rate remained at 3.7 percent despite January's headline number beating expectations for just 180,000 jobs to be added.

The government report showed job gains in professional and business services, health care, retail trade, and social assistance while mining, quarrying, and the oil and gas extraction industries saw employment decline.

The rosy picture painted by the BLS and its headline number, however, is not the whole story. Notably, the job gains reported by BLS are contradicted by trends in the recent ADP, unemployment claim, and Challenger reports.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics itself "cautioned" in December 2023 that "population adjustments can affect the comparability" of jobs report data when fresh estimates were introduced for the new year that can "effect...selected labor force measures between December 2023 and January 2024." That means this first jobs report of the new year can't be directly compared to monthly reports from 2023.

Notably, the January report did not reflect the tens of thousands of job cuts announced by major companies at the start of 2024. Google, Amazon, iRobot, Salesforce, BlackRock, and Zoom have already announced or laid off hundreds of employees each according to tracking from the Wall Street Journal. Xerox is laying off a few thousand employees, Wayfair is laying off more than 1,600 workers, UPS is set to cut some 12,000 positions in 2024, Microsoft will lay off nearly 2,000 members of its video game staff, and more than 2,300 Macy's employees will be cut.

more
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2024/02/02/january-jobs-report-n2634535