How the Latest BLS Data Affects Your Workforce Strategy

A partial government shutdown briefly occurred at the end of January, but the BLS report was eventually released on Wednesday, February 11, 2026. In the latest Labor Market in a Minute video, Labor Finder’s CEO Jeffrey Burnett highlights the key trends in employment, inflation, and the industries adding new jobs.  

Watch the video to learn more about what this month’s report means for employers.

How many jobs were added to the economy? 

For the month of January, non farm payroll employment increased by 130,000 jobs. This is an increase from the month of December. Now as is always the case, the prior two months are revised and in this case for the months of November and December and it resulted in a decrease of 17,000 jobs from what was originally reported. So this month's jobs data was above expectations. Now as I've mentioned to you in the past, each year at this time the BLS says their final revisions for the for the period of March of 2024 to March of 2025. And in this case, it resulted in a decrease of 898,000 jobs from what was originally reported, indicating a much weaker jobs market than was first known. With this final revision, there was an average of 15,000 jobs added per month during 2025.

What is this month's unemployment rate?

The unemployment rate dropped to 4.3%, a small decrease from the prior month.

What is the status of job openings?

Job openings and new hires continue to be at low levels and the number of job openings is at it’s lowest level since mid 2020 and layoffs have started to increase in recent months.

What is happening with inflation?

Inflation remains consistent at 2.7% for all goods and services and is consistent with the prior months. The Fed target rate as I've indicated before is at 2% and the inflation rate for all of 2024 was 2.9%.

What is happening with interest rates?

The Fed can be in their meeting in in January of this year and decided not to make a further interest rate reduction and the Fed continues to balance inflation and interest rates against the labor market.

How are the tariffs and other administration policies affecting the job market?

Businesses are getting more settled around tariffs and appear to be starting to fact that factor that into their business decision.

What is the status of the GDP?

GDP for the third quarter of 2025 was updated again and it moved from 4.3% to 4.4%, indicating A robust GDP for the third quarter of last year. This increase in consumer spending and exports is offset by a decrease in imports and is primarily driving this change.

What industries are adding jobs this month?