Employment Situation Report for January 2015 Shows Job Gains

The year started off on a good start in January 2015 for job employment, with more than 1 million new jobs in a three-month stretch for the first time in nearly two decades, the LA Times reported; the hiring surge has spurred the best wage gains in more than six years. The 257,000 net new jobs that employers added last month were spread across high- and low-paying industries, the Labor Department said Friday in a report that economists described as overwhelmingly positive. Read more here:

“These are pretty amazing numbers,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts, and the top forecaster of payrolls over the last two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “The January number is strong, but then you’ve got sizzling November and December numbers too. And then you’ve got the wage gains.” More hiring, pay increases and the longest workweek of the expansion are boosting earnings just as inflation ebbs, which will combine to lift household buying power. Read more here:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in January, health care employment increased by 38,000. Job gains occurred in offices of physicians (+13,000), hospitals (+10,000), and nursing and residential care facilities (+7,000). Health care added an average of 26,000 jobs per month in 2014. Professional and technical services added 33,000 jobs in January, including increases in computer systems design (+8,000) and architectural and engineering services (+8,000). 

  

The Professional and technical services industry has also been noted as having the best jobs for 2015, and so with healthcare jobs. However, while workers in the Professional and technical services industry, such as those in accountant jobs, are more likely to get a raise in their pay, the healthcare and social services industry is among the worst industries for raises this year. Read more here: