US Jobs - 2026-01-08

A below consensus payroll print, with negative revisions. The unemployment rate fell not because the labor force shrank a little, but because employment was higher and unemployment was lower -- that's winning. On the darker side, while overall and short-term unemployment fell, long-term unemployment rose, as did workers on the job part-time who would prefer full-time. The best news is that this is now the third month in a row in which the massive hemorrhaging of immigrant employment has stopped, and has actually very slightly reversed.