U.S. adds 130,000 jobs in January as BLS revises prior counts down 898,000

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 130,000 in January 2026 and that the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.3%. The release on Feb. 11 included the agency's annual benchmark revision, which significantly lowered prior estimates of payroll growth and painted a weaker picture of last year's labor market than previously understood.

The January report was delayed five days after a brief partial government shutdown pushed back the agency's normal schedule. Alongside the monthly numbers, the BLS benchmark revision reduced employment counts for the prior 12-month window by roughly 898,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, a change Fox Business summarized this way: "This report revised total employment for March 2025 downward by 898,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the downward revision was 862,000, or -0.5%, while the absolute average benchmark revision over the last 10 years was 0.2%."

The revision cut the official tally of job growth for 2025 from a gain of 584,000 to a gain of 181,000, lowering average monthly hires from about 48,000 to roughly 15,000. Monthly revisions for November and December 2025 also trimmed previously reported gains by 15,000 and 2,000, respectively.

Sector details showed health care as the dominant source of January hiring. The Associated Press noted, "Health care accounted for nearly 82,000, or more than 60%, of last month's new jobs." CNBC and AP also cited social assistance up by 42,000 and construction adding 33,000. Manufacturing returned to modest growth, with factories adding 5,000 jobs after a long stretch of declines. Robert Half, using a different aggregation, reported the private education and health services category rose by 137,000 and listed professional and business services up 34,000, including 9,100 in temporary help. Robert Half also flagged contractions in financial activities (-22,000), information (-12,000), and transportation and warehousing (-11,200).

Private payrolls rose by 172,000 in January, Fox Business reported, while federal government employment fell by 34,000, a drop noted by the AP that helps explain the gap between private-sector growth and the headline total.

Other labor indicators underscored a cooling market. Job openings fell to 6.5 million in December from 7.1 million a month earlier, the AP reported: "Employers posted just 6.5 million job openings in December, fewest in more than five years." The quits rate held at 2.0%, and average hourly earnings rose 0.4% month over month. CNBC reported a broader unemployment measure at 8.0%, down 0.4 percentage point from December.

Economists had widely expected a smaller payroll gain; consensus estimates ranged from about 55,000 to 75,000 in various polls. Even so, some analysts cautioned that the benchmark downdraft reflects real weakness. As USA TODAY explained, "The downgrade is based on state unemployment records that reflect actual payrolls rather than the government’s monthly survey. The annual revision is a standard BLS procedure that helps correct sampling and modeling errors. It also serves as a reminder that the agency's monthly jobs reports are based on estimates and sample surveys, not a full census of U.S. employers." Shah put the January print in perspective: "This was not a weak print; it was a very strong one, even allowing for the considerable noise likely embedded in the data," Shah said in a statement to USA TODAY.

The revision and weaker underlying metrics highlight a labor market that is softer than headline months suggested, complicating the outlook for monetary policy and employer hiring plans as businesses weigh high interest rates and lingering uncertainty. As the AP noted in broader context, "Weak hiring over the past year reflects the lingering impact of high interest rates, billionaire Elon Musk's purge last year of the federal workforce and uncertainty arising from President Donald Trump's erratic trade policies, which have left businesses unsure about hiring.