US adds 130,000 jobs in January amid Trump policy fallout and Fed rate freeze
US job growth exceeded expectations in January, while unemployment dropped to 4.3 per cent, despite concerns over Trump’s policies
US job growth beat expectations in January while unemployment crept down, official data showed on Wednesday, defying immediate concerns about labour market fragility on the back of US President Donald Trump’s economic policies.
The United States added 130,000 jobs last month, the Department of Labour said, significantly higher than the 55,000 predicted in surveys by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
The jobless rate dropped to 4.3 per cent from 4.4 per cent in December.
Trump welcomed the better-than-expected job growth in January on Wednesday and pressed his view that the US should pay much less in borrowing costs.
“The United States of America should be paying MUCH LESS on its Borrowings (BONDS!),” Trump said in a social media post. “We are again the strongest Country in the World, and should therefore be paying the LOWEST INTEREST RATE, by far.”
01:21
Trump and US central bank chief bicker over bank renovation costs
But revisions to 2025 figures also indicated that the world’s largest economy added significantly fewer jobs than earlier estimated for all of last year, averaging 15,000 per month rather than 49,000.