US January non-farm payrolls +143K vs +170K expected

• Two-month net revision: +100K versus -8K prior
• Unemployment rate: 4.0% versus 4.1% expected
• Unrounded unemployment rate: 4.0113% versus 4.0855% prior
• Prior unemployment rate: 4.1%
• Participation rate: 62.6% versus 62.5% prior
• U6 underemployment rate: 7.5% versus 7.5% prior
• Average hourly earnings (m/m): +0.5% versus +0.3% expected and +0.3% prior
• Prior avg hourly earnings: +0.3%
• Average hourly earnings (y/y): +4.1% (4.06% unrounded) versus +3.8% expected and +3.9% prior (revised to +4.1%)
• Average weekly hours: 34.1 versus 34.3 expected and 34.3 prior (revised to 34.2)
• Change in private payrolls: +111K versus +141K expected and +223K prior
• Change in manufacturing payrolls: +3K versus -2K expected and -13K prior
• Government jobs: +32K versus +33K prior
• Full-time jobs: +234K versus +87K prior
• Benchmark revision to 2024 -589K vs -675K expected

Be careful with the earnings number, which looks like it was boosted by fewer hours (maybe because of California fires). The year-over-year average hourly earnings were also revised higher for multiple months and the trend is still down.

The market has bounced around on this because much of the good/bad news is reversed or diminished by benchmark revisisions. With that, most market moves have unwound.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.