The nation’s unemployment rate ticked downward to 4.3% in January as the economy gained 130,000 jobs driven by strong hiring in healthcare, social services and construction, according to data released on Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
However, BLS also announced that it had overstated job gains for the 12 months of 2025 by 69%. The economy gained just 181,000 jobs during 2025, not the 584,000 jobs that BLS had previously reported. Job gains for 2024 were revised downward from 2 million to 1.45 million.
Benchmark revisions are part of BLS’s standard annual process reconciling job survey data with less timely, but more reliable, unemployment records from state governments. Changes are typical, but rarely so significant. Combined, the revisions show the economy added about 1 million fewer jobs than previously reported by the government.
The hiring rebound in January 2026 was led primarily by job gains in healthcare (+82,000); social assistance (+42,000); and construction (+33,000).
Federal employment continued to decline in January (-34,000) as workers who had accepted deferred resignation offers in 2025 left the government payroll. Federal government employment has declined 10% since its peak in October 2024, the BLS said.
In the private sector, financial activities employment declined by -22,000 in January and is down -49,000 since reaching a recent peak in May 2025.
Employment levels showed little statistically significant change in January in other sectors such as manufacturing; wholesale trade; retail trade; transportation and warehousing; information; professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; and other services.
The public sector lost 42,000 jobs last month, including 18,000 state government jobs and 34,000 federal jobs.
In January, average hourly earnings for all private payroll nonfarm workers rose 15 cents, (0.4%) to $37.17. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 3.7%.
The national unemployment rate (4.3%) for January was 0.1 percentage point lower than December 2025 when it was 4.4%.
