US adds 517,000 jobs in January, unemployment falls to 3.4%

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) – The US economy added 517,000 jobs in January, above the market estimate, while the unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, the Labor Department announced on Friday.

The market expectation for nonfarm payrolls was a 185,000 gain in January.

Job additions for December was revised up by 37,000, from 223,000 to 260,000. according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The unemployment rate fell to 3.4% in January from 3.5% in December, while the market estimate for it was to come in at 3.6%.

The number of unemployed people in the US changed little in January, as it stood around 5.7 million.

Both the labor force participation rate at 62.4% and the employment-population ratio at 60.2% were little changed last month.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 22 million people in the world’s largest economy lost their jobs during March and April 2020.