WASHINGTON — Employers shed 20,000 jobs in January as economists expected payrolls to be nearly flat, or up just a bit, while the unemployment rate decreased to 9.7%, the lowest level since August, the Labor Department reported Friday.
Economists expected employers to add 5,000 jobs in January and for the unemployment rate to increase to 10.1%, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Nonfarm payrolls for December were revised lower to a drop of 150,000 from the first reported 85,000 decline, while in November employers added 64,000 workers, up from a 4,000 gain reported last month.
For January, employment in construction, transportation and leisure and hospitality fell, while employers added workers in retail and temporary help.
The manufacturing sector added 11,000 jobs, the first increase in manufacturing payrolls since January 2007.
Average hourly earnings increased 0.3% to $18.89 in January after a 0.2% increase in December.
The average workweek increased to 33.3 hours from 33.2 hours in December.
Economists expected average hourly earnings to increase 0.2% and for the average hourly workweek to be 33.2 hours, according to the median estimate.
Observers said weather conditions and federal Census hiring may have influenced the January nonfarm payroll figures.
“Weather may have adversely impacted employment to a small degree in January,” analysts with JPMorgan said in a research note published before the report.
“We look for a 15,000 hit to employment from weather,” expecting the construction, retail and tourism sectors to be hit hardest.
Hiring for the 2010 Census will begin to provide large lifts to aggregate payrolls by the February report, the analysts said.
In January, the federal government employers added 33,000 jobs, including 9,000 temporary positions for the Census.
JPMorgan analysts expected a 10,000 increase in Census-related employment.
