January 2014 Unemployment Rate Jobs

January 2014 Jobs Numbers and Unemployment Rate were released Friday, February 7, 2014.

January Highlights:

• 113,000 payroll jobs added.  (December numbers were revised upwards very slightly, by 1,000; November numbers were revised upwards significantly.)  Job growth has averaged 194,000/month over the past 12 months.  But people are still "Disappointed" and spreading misinformation.  Read about that HERE.
• Private jobs increased by 142,000.
• Government jobs decreased by 29,000. This is the largest decrease in government jobs since October 2012. 
• Unemployment rate ticked down to 6.6% (from 6.7%).  The unemployment rate decreased slightly or remained the same for whites, but increased for blacks and Hispanics in the 18 to 24 year old age group.  (The unemployment rate comes from a different source than the number of jobs which is why the unemployment rate can decline with only a minimal increase in the number of jobs.  Over time, these two numbers closely parallel each other.)   
• The alternate unemployment rate (which includes part time workers who want full time jobs, discouraged workers, and marginally attached workers) decreased to 12.7%, a decrease of .4%, four-tenths of a percent.  This is the lowest that it has been since October 2008, over five years ago.  One year ago, the alternate unemployment rate was 14.4%.   The change was due primarily to a decrease in the number of involuntary part-time workers; that is, the number of people working part-time because they can't find full-time work.     
• The labor force increased by 499,000 in January in "old" numbers, and by 523,000 in numbers adjusted for population control and corrections.
• The Household survey numbers (the number of people employed and unemployed) was "benchmarked" to updated Census numbers in January, as it is every January.  This has slightly impacted the ability to compare January 2014 numbers with earlier numbers.  The benchmarks added 24,000 to the labor force and 22,000 to the number of people employed.  The number of white and Hispanics in the population decreased, and the number of blacks and Asians in the population increased. 
• As usual, the Establishment survey numbers were adjusted in January to reflect more accurate data that is now available from employers.  Those adjustments subtracted a total of 119,000 from total establishment jobs numbers.  But a category of workers that was not previously counted among establishment jobs, services for the elderly and disabled that are provided in homes, is now counted among establishment jobs.  This added 466,000 to the total establishment jobs numbers.  The net effect of these two changes is an increase of 347,000 establishment jobs.  Prior year numbers have been adjusted to reflect these changes.
• The number of people employed, including agricultural and self-employed, jumped 638,000 in January, with an increase of 378,000 employed full-time.
• Since the "trough" of the recession in late 2009/early 2010 in seasonally adjusted numbers:
  • 7.8 million MORE jobs in total
  • 8.5 million MORE private sector jobs
  • 7.2 million MORE people working* 
  Since Bush left office & Obama took office (January 2009) in seasonally adjusted numbers:
  • 3.5 million MORE jobs in total
  • 4.3 million MORE private sector jobs
  • 3.0 million MORE people working*

January 2014 reports to be published: (Notation on the links will be changed to "Updated for January" when the updated reports become available.) 

• Private Sector Job Loss/Growth Since 2008 w/ Graph - UPDATED for January.
• What Was the Unemployment Rate When Obama Took Office (compared to today)? - UPDATED for January. 
• How Many Jobs Created or Lost Under Obama? -   UPDATED for January. 
• Jobs Lost/Gained Year by Year Since 1999 - UPDATED for January.
• Private/Government Jobs Gained/Lost Month by Month 2011 to 2014 - UPDATED for January.
• How Many Jobs Have Been Created in 2013 to date? - UPDATED with final 2013 numbers.
• How Many Jobs Have Been Created in 2014 to date? - Not yet published for 2014.
• How Many Government Jobs Lost or Added Under Obama? - UPDATED for January.  
• Private/Govt Jobs Gained/Lost Under Obama - Not yet published for January. 
• How Many Jobs Lost or Gained in January 2014? - Not yet published.
• How Many Jobs Lost or Gained Over the Past Year? (January 2013 through January 2014) - Not yet published.
• How Many People Left or Joined the Work Force (Civilian Labor Force) Since Obama Took Office? - UPDATED for January.
• A bonus:  Disappointed! Did We Really Lose Millions of Jobs in January?