January 2020 Jobs Report

Unemployment Rate: 3.6 percent

Jobs Created: 225,000

Employment and Unemployment

1. The Department of Labor reported the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.6% in January.

2. Nonfarm jobs grew by 225,000 in January. Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal had expected 158,000 jobs.

3. Job growth for November and December was higher than originally reported. The department revised the job creation numbers up for those months by a combined 7,000 jobs.  

4. The U-6 unemployment rate, a measure that also includes part-time and discouraged workers, edged up 0.2 percentage point to 6.9%.

Labor Force Participation

1. The labor force participation rate, the share of people employed or looking for work, rose 0.2 percentage point to 63.4%.

Wages

1. In January, average hourly earnings for all employees in private nonfarm jobs increased by 7 cents to $28.44. They are up 3.1% from a year ago.