US: Job creation started the year on a strong note – UOB

Alvin Liew from UOB Group’s Global Economics & Markets Research reviewed the recently published US labour market report.

Key Quotes

“2020 started strongly for US employment creation, as the US economy added 225,000 jobs in January ... There was no significant revision to the jobs data of the preceding two months as the increase for December (147,000 from 145,000) was offset by the November revision (261,000 from 263,000).”

“The private sector was again responsible for most of the US jobs creation with 206,000 (markedly higher from the 142,000 in December) while the government added 19,000 jobs (from +5,000 in December). And within the private sector, job creation was mainly concentrated in services-providing industries (174,000) while goods-producing industries added 32,000 jobs as the declines in manufacturing (-12,000) was more than offset by the 44,000 construction jobs added in January.”

“US unemployment rate inched up slightly to 3.6% in January (from 3.5% in December) despite the strong jobs print as labor participation rate also climbed higher to 63.4% (from 63.3% in December), matching the highest participation rate since June 2013. US wage growth came in above market expectations, rising by 0.2% m/m, 3.1% y/y from 0.3% m/m, 3.0% y/y in December. US wage gains has been at or above 3% on a y/y basis since July 2018.”