Wintry Mix of Job Gains and Losses

Although Americans await good economic news with baited breath, sometimes it feels like no news is good news.

Accustomed to staggering figures of unemployment, the subtle changes in total nonfarm payroll employment seem benign.  From December to January, 36,000 more jobs came into existence.

Although many people lost work over the month in the fields of construction, transportation, and warehousing, most of the statistics show positive change.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, manufacturing added 49,000 jobs.  Over the month, job gains occurred in durable goods, including motor vehicles and parts (+20,000), fabricated metal products (+13,000), machinery (+10,000), and computer and electronic products (+5,000).

Employment in health care (part of education and health services) continued to trend up over the month (+11,000).

In January, construction employment declined by 32,000. Within construction, there were job losses among nonresidential specialty trade contractors (?22,000) and in construction of buildings (?10,000).

Transportation and warehousing employment fell by 38,000 in January, reflecting a sharp decline among couriers and messengers (?45,000).

Within professional and business services, employment in temporary help services was little changed in January (?11,000).

Hopefully in warmer months, we will see that some of those construction jobs are back.  It’s certainly hard to build much of anything when your town is blanketed in snow.