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The US economy added 130,000 jobs in January, beating market expectations, in a sign of improvement in the American labour market following a string of bleak data.
Wednesday’s figure from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was almost double the 68,000 anticipated by economists polled by Bloomberg and the downwardly revised 48,000 added the previous month.
US Treasury yields jumped as investors scaled back expectations of interest rate cuts this year. The two-year yield, which is particularly sensitive to monetary policy, jumped 0.08 percentage points to 3.55 per cent, its highest level in a week.
Traders in the futures market, who had been betting on between two or three rate reductions by December of this year, slashed expectations of cuts with just two now priced in.
The unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.3 per cent.
US hiring slowed sharply in 2025 after years of strong growth. A volley of fresh reports released last week suggested it was on course to deteriorate further, with lay-offs increasing and job openings declining.
But the latest data will help reinforce Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell’s argument that the labour market was showing “evidence of stabilisation” as the central bank halted its campaign of interest rate cuts last month.
Wednesday’s release was delayed from last week as a result of the recent partial government shutdown. The January jobs number came alongside the BLS’s annual benchmark revisions to previously released data.
This is a developing story