Although the wave of omicron continued through January and there were millions who called in sick, the Labor Department’s report on Friday showed that 467,000 jobs were added in January. Analysts had estimated a lower payroll growth of 150,000 jobs and the government report proved them to be wrong by a huge margin. December payrolls were also revised upwards.
This reiterates President Biden’s announcement that the administration has added record jobs in his first year in office. The White House had said that the administration under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had created history and their first year in office created more than six million jobs, according to a White House brief.
Although there had been fears of a downturn in jobs, there has been growth, despite people staying at home and businesses facing shortage of workers. The strong hiring by many employers, even as the omicron wave continues, shows that they believe that the omicron effect is temporary and the economy is bouncing back. Hiring is also robust as employers are looking at the long term, instead of short term hiring.
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Reports of the number of omicron cases in many states are also on a downward trend. This shows that most of the country might have crossed the peak on new cases. Much of Europe has opened and the U.S. is following suit.
Initial filings for unemployment benefits were also lower for the second week, in end January. This indicates that the labor market is on an upward trend and hiring remains robust, although the omicron is still a factor. Hiring trends show that the omicron surge is being considered as a temporary factor, globally. The weekly claims totaled 238,000 which was less the Dow Jones estimate of 245,000. Continuing claims at 1.628 million were the lowest since almost half a century ago.
Another report by the Labor Department said that nonfarm productivity reached 6.6 percent at an annualized rate last quarter. It had fallen to 5 percent in the third quarter. Productivity measures the hourly output per worker and is a volatile statistic in the last two years, due to the pandemic.
