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 3, 2017

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 227,000 in January, and 

the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.8 percent. Job 

gains occurred in retail trade, construction, and financial 

activities. In 2016, job gains averaged 187,000 per month.

Incorporating revisions for November and December, which

decreased nonfarm payroll employment by 39,000 on net, monthly

job gains have averaged 183,000 over the past 3 months. 

Retail trade employment rose by 46,000 in January and by 

229,000 over the year. Three industries added jobs in January--

clothing and clothing accessories stores (+18,000), electronics 

and appliance stores (+8,000), and furniture and home furnishing 

stores (+6,000). 

Construction employment rose by 36,000 in January.

Employment increased in residential building (+9,000) and 

continued to trend up among residential specialty trade 
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contractors (+11,000). These residential components have 

accounted for three-fourths of the 170,000 jobs gained in 

construction over the past 12 months. 

Financial activities added 32,000 jobs in January. The 

industry added an average of 15,000 jobs per month in 2016. Over 

the month, gains occurred in real estate (+10,000), insurance 

(+9,000), and credit intermediation (+9,000). 

Employment growth continued in professional and technical 

services (+23,000), in line with the average monthly gain over 

the prior year. In January, computer systems design added 13,000 

jobs. 

Employment in food services and drinking places continued 

to trend up in January (+30,000). The industry has added 286,000 

jobs in the past 12 months. 

Health care employment also continued to trend up in 

January (+18,000), following a gain of 41,000 in December. Over 

the past 12 months, health care has added 374,000 jobs.

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 3 cents in January, following a gain of 6 cents 

in December. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings 

have risen by 2.5 percent. From December 2015 to December 2016, 

the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)

increased by 2.1 percent (on a seasonally adjusted basis). 
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Turning to measures from the survey of households, both the 

unemployment rate, at 4.8 percent, and the number of unemployed 

people, at 7.6 million, remained little changed in January.

There were 1.9 million unemployed people who had been looking 

for work for 27 weeks or more, representing 24.4 percent of the 

unemployed. 

The labor force participation rate rose to 62.9 percent in 

January, and the employment-population ratio edged up to 59.9 

percent. Both measures held fairly steady in 2016. 

In January, there were 5.8 million people working part time 

for economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers), little changed over the month. 

Among those neither working nor looking for work in 

January, 1.8 million were marginally attached to the labor 

force, down by 337,000 from a year earlier. Discouraged workers, 

a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs 

were available for them, numbered 532,000 in January, 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 
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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.)

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 227,000 in 

January, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.8 

percent.