US employers added 227k more jobs in Jan

washington — US employers stepped up hiring last month, adding a healthy 227,000 jobs, and more Americans began looking for work, a sign that President Donald Trump has inherited a robust job market.

January’s job gain was the best since September and exceeded last year’s average monthly gain of 187,000, the Labour Department reported on Friday.

The unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.8 per cent last month from 4.7 per cent in December. But the rate rose for a mostly good reason: More Americans started looking for work, though not all of them immediately found jobs. The percentage of adults working or looking for jobs reached its highest level since September.

Yet some of the economy’s weak spots remain: Average hourly wages barely increased last month. And the number of people working part time who would prefer full-time work rose.

January’s jobs figures reflect hiring that occurred mainly before Trump was inaugurated on January 20. Still, it was the first employment report to be released with Trump occupying the White House, and he seems sure to take a close interest in it.

As a candidate, Trump frequently argued that the government’s jobs data exaggerated the health of the economy. He called the unemployment rate a “hoax” and said it declined after the recession under President Barack Obama mainly because many Americans stopped working or looking for work.

The biggest factor in that trend has been widespread retirements by the vast generation of baby boomers.

Measures of business sentiment indicate that many employers have adopted a more positive outlook since Trump’s election victory in November. The president’s promised tax cuts, deregulation and infrastructure spending have increased optimism that the economy’s sluggish pace of growth will pick up.

The National Federation of Independent Business said its measure of small business optimism soared 38 points in December to its highest level since 2004. —