January Nonfarm Payrolls Top Expectations, Unemployment Rate Falls

10:19 AM EST, 02/11/2026 (MT Newswires) -- The US economy added more jobs than projected in January, while the unemployment rate slipped, delayed official data showed Wednesday.

Total nonfarm payrolls rose by 130,000 last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said, double the 65,000 increase expected in a Bloomberg-compiled survey.

Gains for December were revised down by 2,000 to 48,000, while the November payrolls increase was adjusted downward by 15,000 to 41,000, the BLS said. The latest report was delayed from its original release date of Feb. 6 due to a partial US federal government shutdown that ended last week.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.3%, while Wall Street expected it to hold steady at December's 4.4% print.

"There is an extraordinary degree of seasonality in the January payroll data," Jefferies Chief US Economist Thomas Simons said. "Businesses made fewer pre-holiday temporary hires than usual. January is when these businesses let these people go, so fewer hires translates to fewer layoffs, and a strong seasonally adjusted payroll number for January."

Private payrolls increased by 172,000 in January, compared with a 64,000 gain the month prior, exceeding the Bloomberg consensus for a 68,000 advance. The service industry added 136,000 jobs last month, while the goods-producing sector's employment turned positive, BLS data showed.

"The optics of this report are rather gaudy and consistent with our expectations coming into today, but we are not particularly optimistic about the near-term outlook for the labor market," Simons said.

Last month's job cut announcements in the US soared to the highest since October, Challenger Gray & Christmas said last week. ADP (ADP) recently reported that employment in the private sector increased less than projected last month.

"We expect that in the months ahead, this pop in January payrolls will look more like an aberration than a change in trend from the sleepy labor market that prevailed for most of 2025," Simons said.

Average hourly earnings grew by 0.4% sequentially, the BLS report showed, above the Street's estimate for a 0.3% increase. The annual measure grew 3.7%, in line with expectations.

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