"Preliminary estimates" have recently been released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics regarding the US employment rate for January 2016. These figures are considered preliminary for another two months considering that adjustments must be made for late arriving data.
The reported figure for unadjusted jobs for January was 141.123 million, less than the 2015 December figure of 144.191 million. June 2015 was the peak month with reported unadjusted jobs of 142.836 million.
The BLS adjusts the previous US employment rate data every January, because it usually finds 'overlooked' jobs in previous data. But the agency has always tracked the data as they are released with the modifications since 2012.
For instance, in 2013, the BLS found 738,000 overlooked jobs. Then in January 2014, another 513,000 jobs were ignored. Likewise, in January 2015, the BLS yet again found 227,000 jobs seemingly overlooked. According to the agency, they adjust these numbers only a couple of years back.
In another report about the employment situation summary in the United States, the total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 151,000 in January and the unemployment rate was only slightly changed at 4.9 percent.
The US employment rate increased in a number of industries which is led by retail trade, food and drinking services, medical and health care, and lastly manufacturing.
At the other end, employment rate declined in the areas of private educational services, transportation, warehousing, and lastly mining.
The unemployment rate which is 4.9 percent and the number of unemployed persons numbering 7.8 million changed very slightly in January. In the past 12 months, the unemployment rate is down by 0.8 percent, while the number of unemployed declined by 1.1 million.
Of the main worker groups, the unemployment rate also declined in January: 4.5 percent for adult men and 4.3 percent for Whites. For women, the jobless rate also changed very little: 4.5 percent for adult women, 16.0 percent for teenagers, 8.8 percent for blacks, 3.7 percent for Asians and 5.9 percent for Hispanics.
