Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press 

under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that 

the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Statement of 

William J. Wiatrowski 

Acting Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, February 2, 2018

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 200,000 in January, and 

the unemployment rate remained at 4.1 percent. Employment 

continued to trend up in construction, food services and 

drinking places, health care, and manufacturing. In 2017, 

employment growth averaged 181,000 per month. 

Incorporating revisions for November and December, which 

decreased nonfarm payroll employment by 24,000 on net, monthly 

job gains have averaged 192,000 over the past 3 months. 

Construction employment rose by 36,000 in January, with 

most of the increase occurring among specialty trade contractors 

(+26,000). The construction sector has added 226,000 jobs over 

the past 12 months. 

Employment in food services and drinking places continued 

to trend up over the month (+31,000). The industry has added 

255,000 jobs over the past 12 months. 
2

Health care employment also continued to trend up in 

January (+21,000). Employment in hospitals rose by 13,000 over 

the month. Job growth in health care averaged 24,000 per month 

in 2017.

In January, manufacturing employment continued on an upward 

trend (+15,000). Manufacturing has added 186,000 jobs over the 

past 12 months. A large share of recent job gains occurred in 

the durable goods component, particularly in fabricated metal 

products, machinery, and computer and electronic products. 

Employment in other major industries--mining, wholesale 

trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, 

information, financial activities, professional and business 

services, and government--changed little over the month.

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 9 cents in January to $26.74, following an 

11-cent gain in December. Over the past 12 months, average 

hourly earnings have risen by 2.9 percent. From December 2016 to 

December 2017, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers 

(CPI-U) increased by 2.1 percent (on a seasonally adjusted 

basis). 

The major labor market indicators from the survey of 

households continued to show little or no change in January. The 

unemployment rate was 4.1 percent for the fourth month in a row. 
3

The number of unemployed people, at 6.7 million, changed little 

over the month. 

Among the unemployed in January, 1.4 million had been 

searching for work for 27 weeks or longer. These long-term 

unemployed accounted for 21.5 percent of the total unemployed. 

Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.7 percent in 

January, and the employment-population ratio, at 60.1 percent, 

remained unchanged. 

The number of people working part time for economic 

reasons, also referred to as involuntary part-time workers, was 

about unchanged at 5.0 million in January. 

Among those neither working nor looking for work in 

January, 1.7 million were marginally attached to the labor 

force, little different from a year earlier. Discouraged 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 

no jobs were available for them, numbered 451,000 in January, 

also little changed from a year earlier. (People who are 

marginally attached to the labor force had not looked for work 

in the 4 weeks prior to the survey but wanted a job, were 

available for work, and had looked for a job within the last 12 

months.)

Following our usual practice, there were routine annual 

adjustments to the data from our two surveys. The establishment 

survey data released today reflect the incorporation of annual 
4

benchmark revisions. Each year, we re-anchor our sample-based

survey estimates to full universe counts of employment, 

primarily derived from the Quarterly Census of Employment and 

Wages, which enumerates jobs covered by the unemployment 

insurance tax system. The effect of these revisions on the 

underlying trend in nonfarm payroll employment was minor. 

(Additional information about the benchmark revision and its 

impact is contained in our news release and on our website at

www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cesbmart.htm.) 

Household survey data for January reflect updated 

population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Again this 

year, the impact of the new population controls on the 

unemployment rate and other ratios was negligible. (Further 

information can be found in our news release and on our website 

at www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cps-pop-control-adjustments.pdf.) 

Summarizing the labor market developments in January, 

nonfarm payroll employment rose by 200,000, and the unemployment 

rate remained unchanged at 4.1 percent.