February 05, 2007 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Payroll employment in January 2007

In January, total payroll employment increased by 111,000, to 137.3 million, seasonally adjusted.

Over-the-month change in payroll employment, January 2006-January 2007
[Chart data—TXT]

This increase followed gains of 196,000 in November and 206,000 in December (as revised). In 2006, payroll employment rose by an average of 187,000 per month.

In January, employment continued to increase in some service-providing industries. In addition, construction employment was up, while manufacturing employment continued to trend down.

These data are from the BLS Current Employment Statistics program, and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent two months are preliminary. More information can be found in "The Employment Situation: January 2007" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 07-0159.