After a tough year for the labor market, economists touted January’s robust gains.
“It was a January job surge. The surprisingly strong job gains in January were driven mainly by health care and social assistance,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a statement. “But it is enough to stabilize the job market and send the unemployment rate slightly lower. This is still a largely frozen job market, but it is stabilizing. That’s an encouraging sign to start the year, especially after the hiring recession in 2025.”
After a tough year for the labor market, economists touted January’s robust gains.
“It was a January job surge. The surprisingly strong job gains in January were driven mainly by health care and social assistance,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a statement. “But it is enough to stabilize the job market and send the unemployment rate slightly lower. This is still a largely frozen job market, but it is stabilizing. That’s an encouraging sign to start the year, especially after the hiring recession in 2025.”
Laura Ullrich, director of economic research for the Indeed Hiring Lab, echoed that sentiment, saying in a statement that the labor market had a “solid start” to the year.
“That unexpected strength is particularly welcome given benchmark revisions to full-year 2025 data revealed that a labor market already viewed as soft actually performed worse than initially thought. Revisions brought the total number of jobs added last year down by more than 400,000, to only 181,000 for the year — an exceptionally weak year by almost any standard,” Ullrich said.
However, Ullrich was worried about the uneven nature of job gains. “There are now real doubts about how long the broader economy can continue to power forward with the job market at an almost complete standstill outside of the essential healthcare sector.”
Jeffrey Roach, chief economist for LPL Financial, said in a statement that the economy has “an anemic demand for workers.”
“This year may be more of the same with average monthly payroll gains expected to hover around 50,000 but with employers increasing average hours worked, especially in areas like construction with low supply of available workers,” Roach said.