US adds 467,000 jobs in January, but unemployment rises to 4%

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) – The US economy added 467,000 jobs in January, well above market estimates, but the unemployment rate rose to 4%, the Department of Labor announced on Friday.

Market estimates were for nonfarm payrolls to see an increase of 150,000 last month.

Job additions for December were revised up strongly to 510,000, from 199,000, according to data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The unemployment rate, on the other hand, increased by 0.1 percentage point to 4% in January.

The market expectation for unemployment rate was to remain unchanged from December’s 3.9%.

The number of unemployed individuals in the US increased to 6.5 million in January, from 6.3 million the month before.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, more than 22 million people in the world’s largest economy lost their jobs in March and April 2020.