U.S. Job Creation Surges in January, Adding 225,000 Positions

The American economy saw an explosion of new hiring in January, possibly helped by mild weather but getting the year off to an impressive start, according to key government data released Friday.

Employers added 225,000 new non-farm jobs last month, far surpassing expectations, thanks to big gains in construction and leisure and hospitality, but also health care and transportation, the Labor Department reported.

The report, which showed the biggest employment increase since January of last year, will cheer President Donald Trump, who has been touting his economic record as he battles to win re-election in November.

The latest gains mean the economy added an average of 211,000 jobs in the last three months, according to the report. That is a healthy improvement on the 175,000 average of 2019 when the economy cooled amid Trump's multifront trade wars.

Still, after more than a decade of steady growth and job gains, and with steep tariffs on many products from China still in place, it is questionable whether the hiring pace can continue, especially since the economy is projected to slow this year.

Even with the stunning job gains in January, the unemployment rate ticked up by a tenth to 3.6 percent. But that can be attributed to an increase in the labor force, with more people returning to the job market. The rate still remains near a 50-year low.

The construction sector, which is highly weather-dependent, added a stunning 44,000 positions last month -- nearly four times the monthly average of 2019.

Meanwhile, jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector jumped 21,000, bringing the total over the past six months alone to 288,000, according to the report.

The manufacturing sector, which slumped into recession last year under the weight of punitive tariffs imposed in the trade confrontations, both on inputs and on exports, lost 12,000 positions in January -- almost entirely due to a decline in the auto sector.

But the health care sector added another 36,000 jobs in the month, and has grown by 361,000 over the past 12 months, according to the report.

The labor force participation rate rose 0.2 percentage point to 63.4 percent.

Worker pay grew by seven cents to an average of $28.44 an hour last month, and has grown 3.1 percent over the past 12 months.

That gain outstrips inflation and is key to helping U.S. consumers keep buying goods and services -- a force which has been shoring up economic growth in the face of headwinds from abroad and sluggish growth at home.