*On the jobs front, things are looking real good as employers added 304,000 jobs in January, defying the Trump’s 35-day government shutdown, while marking 100 straight months of job growth, as well as a trade war with China.
On the other hand, the unemployment rate, which is calculated from a separate survey of households, rose from 3.9% to 4 percent, largely because of the government shutdown, the Labor Department said Friday.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimated 165,000 jobs were added last month.
Employment gains from November and December were revised down by a total 70,000. November’s was upgraded from 176,000 to 196,000 but December’s blockbuster 312,000 was revised down to 222,000, still a strong showing.
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A whirlwind of unusual factors likely skewed January’s employment totals, economists said. The shutdown wasn’t expected to affect the jobs total broadly, which derives from a survey of businesses and government agencies, because 420,000 federal employees worked without pay and the 380,000 who were furloughed are receiving paychecks retroactively, Labor said. However, the longest shutdown in U.S. history still may have curtailed government hiring, Goldman Sachs said. And layoffs by the government’s private contractors probably suppressed employment by about 30,000, according to Morgan Stanley.
Warm weather in mid-January, when Labor conducted its employment survey, was set to bolster job gains in industries such as construction and leisure and hospitality, economists said. But since balmy temperatures also contributed to strong payroll gains in December, Goldman Sachs expected some negative offsetting effects last month that would result in net, weather-related job losses.
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