Well, we did warn readers that anyone hoping for a negative print in an election year would be disappointed, and moments ago the BLS proved us right.
These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.
The number of people not in the labor force who currently want a job, at 5.8 million, was little changed in January.
To be sure, a big reason why none of today's numbers made any sense is because this was the report when the annual revisions are made, and while we will have more to say on that, one can see the clear difference in payrolls before and after revisions below: Looking at a breakdown of jobs by sector, we find the following: Professional and business services added 74,000 jobs in January, considerably higher than the average monthly increase of 14,000 jobs in 2023.
Over the month, general merchandise retailers added 24,000 jobs, while electronics and appliance retailers lost 3,000 jobs.
Employment in manufacturing edged up in January, with job gains in chemical manufacturing and printing and related support activities.
A job gain occurred in federal government, and employment continued to trend up in local government, excluding education.
Over the month, a job loss in support activities for mining was partially offset by a job gain in oil and gas extraction.
Since you have trouble finding actual data, we've made it easy for you - here are the layoffs announced in the past few months:
1. Twitch: 35% of workforce
2. Hasbro: 20% of workforce
3. Spotify: 17% of workforce
4. Levi's: 15% of workforce
5. Zerox: 15% of workforce
6. Qualtrics: 14% of workforce
7. Wayfair: 13% of workforce
8. Duolingo: 10% of workforce
9. Washington Post: 10% of workforce
10. eBay: 9% of workforce
11. Business Insider: 8% of workforce
12. Paypal: 7% of workforce
13. Charles Schwab: 6% of workforce
14. UPS: 2% of workforce
15. Blackrock: 3% of workforce
16. Citigroup: 20,000 employees
17. Pixar: 1,300 employees
Looking at a breakdown of jobs by sector (from the rigged Establishment survey), we find the following:
Professional and business services added 74,000 jobs in January, considerably higher than the average monthly increase of 14,000 jobs in 2023. Over the month, professional, scientific, and technical services added 42,000 jobs. Employment in temporary help services changed little over the month (+4,000) but is down by 408,000 since reaching a peak in March 2022.
In January, employment in health care rose by 70,000, with gains in ambulatory health care services (+33,000), hospitals (+20,000), and nursing and residential care facilities (+17,000). Job growth in health care averaged 58,000 per month in 2023.
Retail trade employment increased by 45,000 in January but has shown little net growth since early 2023. Over the month, general merchandise retailers added 24,000 jobs, while electronics and appliance retailers lost 3,000 jobs.
Employment in social assistance rose by 30,000 in January, reflecting continued growth in individual and family services (+22,000). Employment in social assistance grew by an average of 23,000 per month in 2023.
Employment in manufacturing edged up in January (+23,000), with job gains in chemical manufacturing (+7,000) and printing and related support activities (+5,000). Manufacturing experienced little net job growth in 2023.
Government employment continued to trend up in January (+36,000), below the average monthly gain of 57,000 in 2023. A job gain occurred in federal government (+11,000), and employment continued to trend up in local government, excluding education (+19,000).
In January, employment in information continued its upward trend (+15,000). Employment in motion picture and sound recording industries increased by 12,000, while employment in telecommunications decreased by 3,000.
Employment in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry declined by 5,000 in January, following little net change in 2023. Over the month, a job loss in support activities for mining (-7,000) was partially offset by a job gain in oil and gas extraction (+2,000).
Employment showed little change over the month in other major industries, including construction, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, leisure and hospitality, and other services.
We will have more to say on this report, but the bottom line is simple: the Biden administration has clearly tasked the BLS to make the labor market as strong and hot as possible ahead of November. Needless to say, this will make the Fed's job very difficult as any rate cuts will be very, very difficult to pass now with a FOMC consensus (of course, inflation will keep easing since the jobs numbers are totally bogus and made up, and in reality the labor market is shrinking fast but we have election coming). As such, the BLS has been terminally discredited and any indications of the true state of US employment will have to come at the macro level, like tracking individual corporate layoffs and other alternative metrics. This also means that trading in 2024 is going to be very difficult since most if not all "fundamental" data will be rigged to appear much stronger than it is, until eventually everything snaps. Biden's hope - of course - is that this happens after November...
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