Construction Gains Aid Surprisingly Strong Official Job Numbers for January

Many indicators have pointed to a worsening job market — possibly speaking to the state of the broader economy — but January’s employment numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed a slight reversal in that trend.

The Trump administration released an employment report Wednesday morning that had been delayed by the partial government shutdown and that widely differed from the stark conditions illustrated by independent data last week. That independent report showed the highest number of layoffs for a January since January 2009, at the tail end of the Global Financial Crisis, and the biggest hiring freeze since the pandemic.

The data released by the federal government Wednesday show that 130,000 people were hired in January and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.3 percent from 4.4 percent in December.

It was an improvement from months prior when 50,000 jobs were added to the economy in December, which fell short of the 56,000 new hires in November and the expected net gain of 55,000 jobs in the last days of 2025, CNN reported at the time.

The health care, social assistance and construction sectors saw the strongest job growth, while the federal government and financial services lost the most jobs in January. Construction added 33,000 jobs, mostly in nonresidential specialty trades, according to the BLS. 

About 7.4 million Americans were unemployed in January, according to the BLS, while the number of people who are not employed but want a job decreased by 399,000 to 5.8 million.

Independent data from recruiting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed that business and professional services imposed layoffs amounting to 108,435 positions in January, a 118 percent increase over January 2025.

Hiring intentions in those sectors saw a 13 percent decrease in January from the same period last year to 5,306.

Data from payroll services firm ADP reported that only 22,000 people were hired in January, about half of the 45,000 nationwide hires analysts were predicting with professional and business services eliminating 57,000 positions.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.