January Jobs Report: What The Numbers Tell Us in 2016

You might have noticed that there’s something missing from the current presidential campaign. Sure, we’ve got the requisite number of crazies, a couple persistent scandals, and embarrassing cultural literacy from the candidates (Hillary, please stop dabbing). But the same issue that fired up the debates in 2012 is almost nonexistent on the campaign trail these days: unemployment.

So, what gives?

According to the Labor Department’s January jobs report, released on Friday, February 5th, national unemployment is at an eight-year low. “After reaching 10 percent in 2009, the unemployment rate has now fallen to 4.9 percent even as more Americans joined the job market last month,” President Obama announced at a White House briefing last week, the New York Times reports.

Surprisingly, the low unemployment rate isn’t even the best takeaway from the latest jobs report, which also suggests that American workers are (finally) making a bit more money. According to the report, January saw a half percentage point increase in average hourly earnings, which extends a positive five-month streak for employee paychecks to six months, meaning the last half-year has been the best extended period for wages since the economic recovery was jump started nearly seven years ago.

The half percentage point increase might not seem like much, but it’s actually a noteworthy jump, both for the immediate and long-term future. “That gain in average hourly earnings is significant,” Chicago economist Diane Swonk says. “It’s a move in the right direction, and that’s reassuring.”

The jobs report reveals just over 150,000 jobs were added to the economy last month alone.

“The January employment report provides yet one more piece of evidence that the chance of recession this year is truly remote,” offers Bernard Baumohl, a global economist based in New Jersey. “Economic activity should accelerate this year as rising employment, income, home values and confidence drive more spending.”

While the report doesn’t offer specific information about the jobless rates for millennials, it does convey consistently high unemployment among teenagers, who suffer from 16% joblessness as a whole. As ever, the most educated populations in the country are faring the best: those with a Bachelor’s degree or higher are sitting pretty at 2.5% unemployment (unchanged from last month and down 0.3% from last year) while high-school grads suffer from 5.3% unemployment.

Stay tuned for more good news in March (hopefully) as Ploymint breaks down the Labor Department’s jobs report each month.