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Payroll employment up by 227,000 in January 2017

February 06, 2017

In January 2017, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 227,000. Over the prior 12 months, total nonfarm employment rose an average of 187,000 jobs per month. From December 2016 to January 2017, employment increased in retail trade (+45,900), construction (+36,000), and financial activities (+32,000).
Over-the-month change in nonfarm payroll employment compared with prior 3-, 6-, and 12-month average change, seasonally adjusted, December 2016–January 2017
Industry Current over-the-month change(p) Prior 3-month avg. change(p) Prior 6-month avg. change(p) Prior 12-month avg. change(p)

Total nonfarm

 227,000 148,300 193,500 186,800

Mining and logging

 4,000 2,300 0 -6,300

Construction

 36,000 15,300 13,800 12,100

Manufacturing

 5,000 2,000 -1,800 -1,900

Wholesale trade

 3,000 3,500 5,100 3,000

Retail trade

 45,900 4,600 12,700 18,600

Transportation and warehousing

 -4,000 17,600 13,900 8,100

Utilities

 -600 300 300 0

Information

 3,000 -7,300 -2,700 200

Financial activities

 32,000 13,700 14,200 14,800

Professional and business services

 39,000 44,300 55,200 44,200

Education and health services

 24,000 40,300 43,800 45,700

Leisure and hospitality

 34,000 24,000 24,300 28,600

Other services

 16,000 -2,300 3,000 4,200

Government

 -10,000 -10,000 11,800 15,700
Footnotes:

(p) = preliminary.

From December 2016 to January 2017, within retail trade, three industries added jobs: clothing and clothing accessories stores (+18,000), electronics and appliance stores (+8,000), and furniture and home furnishings (+6,000). Over the year, employment in retail trade increased by 229,000.

Employment in construction rose by 36,000 in January 2017, following little change in December 2016. Over the prior 12 months, construction added an average of 12,000 jobs. In January, residential building added 9,000 jobs over the month, and employment continued to trend up among residential specialty trade contractors (+11,000). Over the past 12 months, construction added 170,000 jobs.

In January, financial activities added 32,000 jobs, with gains in real estate (+10,000), insurance carriers and related activities (+9,000), and credit intermediation and related activities (+9,000). Financial activities added an average of 15,000 jobs per month in 2016.

Employment in other major industries, including mining and logging, manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, and government, showed little change over the month.

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program. Data for the most recent 2 months are preliminary. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation — January 2017" (HTML) (PDF). For additional charts, see Graphics for Economic News Releases: The Employment Situation.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Payroll employment up by 227,000 in January 2017 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/payroll-employment-up-by-227000-in-january-2017.htm (visited April 24, 2024).

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