U.S. adds 467K jobs in January despite Omicron; unemployment rate at 4%

The U.S. economy added a higher-than-expected number of jobs in January, even as the Omicron variant peaked across the country.

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 467,000 in January, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

Friday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report noted that the unemployment rate was largely unchanged at 4%. December’s jobs report indicated that the unemployment rate at that time was 3.9%.

Both the unemployment rate, at 4.0 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, at 6.5 million, changed little in January, data shows. Over the year, the unemployment rate is down by 2.4 percentage points, and the number of unemployed persons declined by 3.7 million, according to the data.

In February 2020, prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent, and unemployed persons numbered 5.7 million.

While Friday’s report was a good sign for the U.S. economy, Americans are still dealing with high rates of inflation, causing the prices of goods and services to skyrocket. Last week, the Federal Reserve noted that a key measure of prices had increased nearly 6% in the last year — the sharpest increase since 1982.

The Fed has already signaled that it plans to raise key interest rates in March in the hopes of curbing inflation.