WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. job growth rebounded modestly in January, but economists cautioned that the gains were heavily concentrated in health care and social assistance, highlighting persistent fragility in the broader labor market.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 130,000 for January, according to data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number beat economists' predictions of 55,000, offering some relief to worries about a declining job market, a month after December's lackluster 48,000-job gain.
The jobless rate ticked downward to 4.3 percent, beating economists' forecasts of 4.4 percent.
Meanwhile, total nonfarm employment for 2025 was revised to 181,000, significantly lower than the previously estimated 584,000.
President Donald Trump described the latest monthly job numbers as a sign of a robust economy, repeating calls for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.
"GREAT JOBS NUMBERS, FAR GREATER THAN EXPECTED!" said Trump on the social media platform Truth Social.
"The surprisingly strong job gains in January were driven mainly by health care and social assistance. But it is enough to stabilize the job market and send the unemployment rate slightly lower," Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, was quoted by CNBC as saying.
"This is still a largely frozen job market, but it is stabilizing. That's an encouraging sign to start the year, especially after the hiring recession in 2025," Long said.
However, it remains unclear whether this will continue.
"I was surprised by the number, but I don't expect it to continue," said Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, believes that the job market "remains fragile and highly vulnerable."
"Yes, payroll employment increased by 130,000 in January, but ... there has been no job growth since last April (Liberation Day)," Zandi said, referring to the tariffs Trump slapped on myriad countries last April.
Moreover, nearly all of the job growth in January and over the past year has been in healthcare, he noted.
"Over the past year, without the job gains in healthcare, the economy would have lost a bunch of jobs," he said.
Others echoed Zandi's remarks on healthcare being the month's biggest boon.
"Headlines suggesting the January jobs report 'smashes expectations' are somewhat misleading. In other words, strength in non-discretionary sectors masked weakness elsewhere -- portraying narrow net growth rather than broad-based gains," said an article published on Wednesday in Quartz, an online business publication.
According to data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, health care added 82,000 jobs in January, while employment in social assistance increased by 42,000, together accounting for over 95 percent of the total job gains.
At the same time, the financial services industry lost 22,000 jobs and federal government jobs dropped by 34,000.
"So, soak in the January job gains, I suspect there won't be many more months with job gains like this in 2026," said Zandi. Enditem
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