U.S. economy adds 243,000 jobs in January
February 22, 2012
‘THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION – JANUARY 2012’ report released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report showed the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point in January 2012 to 8.3 percent and has fallen by 0.8 point since August 2011. Other key points include:
- Professional and business services employment added 70,000 jobs in January 2012, with nearly half of the increase, 33,000 jobs, occurring in employment services.
- Manufacturing employment added 50,000 jobs in January 2012, with nearly all of the increase occurred in durable goods manufacturing, which has added 418,000 jobs over the past two years.
- Leisure and hospitality employment increased by 44,000 jobs in January 2012, with food services and drinking places adding 33,000 jobs. Since a recent low in February 2010, food services has added 487,000 jobs.
- Health care employment added 31,000 jobs in January 2012, with hospitals and ambulatory care services each adding 13,000 jobs.
- Construction employment increased by 21,000 jobs in January 2012, following a gain of 31,000 jobs in the previous month. Over the past two months, nonresidential specialty trade contractors added 30,000 jobs.
- Retail trade employment continued to trend up with a gain of 19,000 jobs overall in January 2012 and has added 390,000 jobs since an employment trough in December 2009.
- Wholesale trade employment increased by 14,000 in January 2012. Since a recent employment low in May 2010, wholesale trade has added 144,000 jobs.
- Mining employment added 10,000 jobs in January 2012, with 8,000 of those jobs in support activities for mining. Since a recent low in October 2009, mining employment has expanded by 172,000 jobs.
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