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 1, 2019

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 304,000 in 

January, and the unemployment rate edged up to 4.0 percent. Job 

gains occurred in a number of industries, including leisure and 

hospitality, construction, health care, and transportation and 

warehousing. 

Incorporating revisions for November and December, which 

decreased nonfarm payroll employment by 70,000, on net, monthly 

job gains averaged 241,000 over the past 3 months. 

Our evaluation of the establishment survey data indicates 

that there were no discernible impacts of the partial federal 

government shutdown on the January estimates of employment, 

hours, or earnings. Federal government employment was 

essentially unchanged over the month (+1,000). Federal employees 

on furlough during the shutdown were considered employed in the 

establishment survey because they worked or received pay (or 
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will receive pay) for the survey’s reference period, which is 

the pay period that includes the 12th of the month. It is likely 

that some private industries were affected by the shutdown; 

however, we are not able to quantify the impacts. 

Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 74,000 

in January. Within the industry, food services and drinking 

places (+37,000) and amusements, gambling, and recreation 

(+32,000) added jobs. Over the year, leisure and hospitality 

added 410,000 jobs. 

Construction employment rose by 52,000 in January, with 

gains in specialty trade contractors (+34,000), heavy and civil 

engineering (+10,000), and residential building (+9,000). Over 

the year, construction employment increased by 338,000. 

Health care added 42,000 jobs in January. Within the 

industry, employment rose in ambulatory care services (+22,000) 

and hospitals (+19,000). Over the past 12 months, health care 

employment increased by 368,000. 

In January, employment in transportation and warehousing 

rose by 27,000, with gains in warehousing and storage (+15,000) 

and among couriers and messengers (+7,000). Over the year, 

transportation and warehousing added 219,000 jobs. 

Retail trade employment edged up by 21,000 in January. 

Sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores added jobs over 

the month (+17,000), while general merchandise stores lost jobs 
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(-12,000). Overall, employment in retail trade has shown little 

net change over the year (+26,000). 

Mining employment rose by 7,000 in January and by 64,000 

over the year, mostly in support activities for mining. 

Employment continued to trend up in professional and 

business services in January (+30,000). Over the past 12 months, 

this industry has added 546,000 jobs. 

Manufacturing employment continued to trend up in January 

(+13,000). Durable goods added 20,000 jobs over the month, while 

employment in nondurable goods changed little (-7,000). Over the 

year, manufacturing employment has increased by 261,000, with 

more than four-fifths of the gain in durable goods industries. 

Employment in other major industries--including wholesale 

trade, information, and financial activities--showed little 

change over the month. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 3 cents in January to $27.56, following a 10-

cent increase in December. Over the past 12 months, average 

hourly earnings have grown by 3.2 percent. From December 2017 to 

December 2018, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers 

(CPI-U) increased by 1.9 percent (on a seasonally adjusted 

basis). 

Turning to measures from the household survey, both the 

unemployment rate, at 4.0 percent, and the number of unemployed 
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people, at 6.5 million, edged up in January. The impact of the 

partial federal government shutdown contributed to the uptick in 

these measures. 

The number of unemployed people on temporary layoff rose by 

175,000 in January; much of the increase occurred among federal 

government workers (discussed in more detail below). 

Among the unemployed, the number who had been searching for 

work for 27 weeks or longer, at 1.3 million, was little changed 

in January. These long-term unemployed accounted for 19.3 

percent of the total unemployed. 

The labor force participation rate, at 63.2 percent, 

changed little in January. The employment-population ratio, at 

60.7 percent, also changed little. Over the year, both measures 

were up by 0.5 percentage point. 

In January, 5.1 million people were working part time for 

economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers), up by about one-half million from the prior month. 

Nearly all of this increase was in the private sector and may 

reflect the partial federal government shutdown. 

Among those neither working nor looking for work in 

January, 1.6 million were considered marginally attached to the 

labor force, little different from a year earlier. Discouraged 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed no 

jobs were available for them, numbered 426,000 in January, also 
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little different 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 to 

work, and had looked for a job within the last 12 months.) 

As noted above, unlike the establishment survey, some of 

the estimates from the household survey show the effects of the 

partial federal government shutdown. This is due to differences 

in the concepts and definitions used in the two surveys. In the 

household survey, workers who indicate that they were not 

working during the entire reference week due to a shutdownrelated furlough and expect to be recalled to their jobs should 

be classified as unemployed on temporary layoff, whether or not 

they are paid for the time they were off work. In January 2019, 

many furloughed federal employees were so classified, 

contributing to a rise in the overall number of people 

unemployed on temporary layoff. This mirrored the effect of the 

October 2013 partial federal government shutdown on the estimate 

of unemployed on temporary layoff. 

However, as with the October 2013 shutdown, some federal 

workers who were not at work during the entire January reference 

week were not classified as unemployed on temporary layoff. 

Instead, they were classified as employed but absent from work. 

Our review of the underlying data indicates that most of these 

workers should have been classified as unemployed on temporary 
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layoff. This type of misclassification is an example of 

nonsampling error and can occur when respondents misunderstand 

questions or interviewers record answers incorrectly. As in 

2013, no ad hoc actions were taken to reassign survey responses; 

the data were accepted as recorded. 

If the federal workers who were recorded as employed but 

absent from work had been classified as unemployed on temporary 

layoff, the overall unemployment rate would have been slightly 

higher than reported. Additional information is available 

online at www.bls.gov/bls/shutdown_2019_empsit_qa.pdf.

In January, there were routine adjustments to the data from 

our two surveys, following our usual annual practice. The 

establishment survey data released today reflect the 

incorporation of annual benchmark revisions. Each year, we reanchor our sample-based survey estimates to full universe counts 

of employment, primarily derived from the Quarterly Census of 

Employment and Wages, which counts 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 
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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 increased by 304,000 

in January, and the unemployment rate edged up to 4.0 percent.