U.S. employers added a burst of 467,000 jobs in January despite a wave of omicron infections that sickened millions of workers, kept many consumers at home and left businesses from restaurants to manufacturers short-staffed.
The government’s report this morning also drastically revised up its estimate of job gains for November and December by a combined 709,000. It also said the unemployment rate ticked up last month from 3.9% to a still-low 4%.
The strong hiring gain for January, which was unexpected, demonstrates the eagerness of many employers to hire even as the pandemic maintains its grip on the economy. Businesses appear to have seen the omicron wave as having, at most, a temporary impact on the economy and remain confident about longer-term growth.
“Employers have assumed that omicron would be painful but short term, so they haven’t changed their hiring plans,” says Mathieu Stevenson, CEO of Snagajob, a job listings site focused on hourly workers. “Demand from employers is as strong as ever.”
The surprisingly healthy hiring figures will likely give the Federal Reserve leeway to raise interest rates more quickly to cool inflation. The Fed has already indicated that it will begin raising rates in March. Read more.
