No one seemed to know quite what to expect before the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest jobs report this morning. Because the report was compiled with data from mid-January, when omicron variant infections were peaking, projections ranged from a gain of 250,000 jobs to a loss of 400,000.
Now that we’ve seen the actual data, we know job creation exceeded all expectations. NBC News reported:
The economy gained a surprise 467,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate stayed relatively flat, rising slightly to 4 percent from 3.9 percent, according to Friday’s monthly employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report also revised the number of jobs added in December, which had previously been reported as 199,000. The actual number was 510,000.
The Biden White House this week invested a fair amount of time warning everyone that this jobs report was likely to look pretty ugly. The warnings came with an associated explanation: Even if the economy lost jobs in January, it would be a Covid-related fluke, not a reflection of a broader economic downturn.
It now appears those efforts were unnecessary.
Indeed, today’s data not only exceeded expectations, the report also paints an encouraging bigger picture. Last month’s initial tally for December appeared to be off at the time, and those suspicions proved correct: Job totals from November and December were both revised up, adding a whopping 709,000 previously unreported new jobs — on top of the 467,000 jobs created in January.
What’s more, the numbers also looked encouraging on the rising labor force and permanent job losses. All told, the U.S. economy has now gained back 87 percent of its pandemic job losses — and it’s happened faster than any thought possible a year ago.








