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Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
The United States economy added 225,000 jobs in January 2020 while the unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.6 percent during the month, according to the jobs report for January 2020 released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The jobs report for January 2020 showed the number of unemployed persons rose slightly to 5.9 million, while job gains occurred in construction, health care, leisure and hospitality, transportation and warehousing, and professional and business services. Here are the specific job gains during the month.
- Construction employment rose by 44,000 jobs in January 2020 compared with an average monthly gain of 175,000 jobs in 2019.
- Health care employment added 36,000 jobs in January 2020 and has added 361,000 jobs over the past 12 months.
- Leisure and hospitality employment rose by 36,000 jobs in January 2020 and has added 288,000 jobs over the past six months.
- Transportation and warehousing employment increased by 28,000 jobs in January 2020 and has increased by 106,000 jobs over the year.
- Professional and business services employment added 21,000 jobs in January 2020 and has increased by 390,000 jobs over the past 12 months.
On the negative side, manufacturing employment declined by 12,000 jobs in January 2020. Employment in other industries – including mining, wholesale trade, retail trade, information, financial activities, and government – showed little change over the month.
The change in employment for November 2019 was revised from 256,000 jobs added to 261,000 jobs added while December 2019 was revised from 145,000 jobs added to 147,000 jobs added. With these revisions, gains in November 2019 and December 2019 combined were 7,000 more than previously reported.
The jobs report is usually released on the first Friday of every month. The jobs report for February 2020 is scheduled to be released on Friday, March 6, 2020. Until then, the most recent jobs report will be available at www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm (PDF).
A survey of how HR professionals use background screening released in May 2019 by the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) – formerly the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) – revealed 96 percent of employers conduct background checks on job applicants.
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