U.S. added 130K jobs in January, easily beating forecasts

The U.S. added more jobs than expected during the month of January, the government reported Wednesday, a development that should ease fears about lackluster hiring.

Payrolls rose by 130,000, far exceeding a consensus Wall Street forecast of about 55,000 positions.

“Great jobs numbers, far greater than expected!” Mr. Trump said in capital letters on social media.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics was supposed to release the January report days ago, but a short-lived federal government shutdown delayed it.

The unemployment rate stood at 4.3%, a slight improvement from the 4.4% reading one month earlier but higher than the 4% recorded one year ago.

Health care continued to lead the way in job gains, at 123,000 jobs. 

Construction added 33,000 jobs and manufacturing was up 5,000 jobs after a string of months showing job losses. Those are positive signs for President Trump, who promised a building boom under his deregulation, tax cuts and tariff agenda but had struggled to make those gains materialize.

Transportation and warehousing shed 11,000 jobs, information services lost 12,000 positions, and the financial sector lost 22,000.

U.S. stocks surged because of the better-than-expected report. The robust numbers also have implications for the Federal Reserve, which cut rates in late 2025 to jumpstart the labor market.

Despite Mr. Trump’s push for more cuts, the central bank might be inclined to wait for a long time before cutting again, given the robust start to the year.

Mr. Trump says interest rates should be lowered to accelerate growth, not hold it back.

“We are again the strongest Country in the World, and should therefore be paying the LOWEST INTEREST RATE, by far,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.

A year into his new presidency, Mr. Trump increasingly takes ownership of the economy after blaming his predecessor, President Joseph R. Biden, for the woes inflicted by inflation that totaled 17.1% during Mr. Biden’s term.

Hiring had been lackluster during 2025. Revised estimates released show that the U.S. economy added just 181,000 jobs in 2025, down from the preliminary estimate of 584,000 jobs added.

BLS also revised down numbers for the period between April 2024 and March 2025, reducing total jobs by a total of 898,000.

Democratic lawmakers have made the economy and “affordability” their top issues for this year’s midterm election as they fight to take control of Congress.

Rep. Brendan Boyle, Pennsylvania Democrat, said he remained unimpressed by the state of the economy despite the better-than-expected jobs numbers.

“Today’s report doesn’t change the fact that costs are out of control, the labor market is softening, and Trump’s tariffs amount to a tax hike on American families,” said Mr. Boyle, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. “As if that weren’t bad enough, millions of Americans are going to lose their health care so Republicans can give new tax breaks to their billionaire donors.”

The administration had tamped down job expectations in recent days, only to find a positive start to the year.

Administration officials pointed to technology advancements and Mr. Trump’s deportation program as downward pressures on the labor force.

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said productivity is booming alongside growth in artificial intelligence, so companies might be making more products with fewer workers. 

Also, “there’s a pretty big decline in the labor force because of illegals leaving the country,” Mr. Hassett said.

“I think that you should expect slightly smaller job numbers that are consistent with high GDP growth right now,” Mr. Hassett said Monday on CNBC. “One shouldn’t panic if you see a sequence of numbers that are lower than you’re used to, because, again, population growth is going down and productivity growth is skyrocketing. It’s an unusual set of circumstances.”

Mr. Trump has pointed to the sharp decline in federal government payrolls as the driver of the lackluster jobs numbers in recent months. 

The president says shifting workers to the private sector is part of his plan, and he could easily boost job numbers by bloating federal payrolls.