The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its delayed January
employment / unemployment report on February 11^th, 2026.

Employment / Unemployment 

• Seasonally Adjusted U3-  4.3% in January 
• Unadjusted U3- 4.6% up from 4.1% in December
• Unadjusted U6- 8.7% up from 8.2% in December
• Labor Force Participation Rate- 62.5%
• Employment- 156.714 million in January
• December Adjusted Employment #: 159.448 million
• Originally Released Employment- 160.448 million in December
• Average BLS January Adjustment since 2000: -2.8 million
• Next data release March 6, 2026

Summary:

Every February, the BLS adjusts its employment numbers. The average adjustment since 2000 has been a reduction of -2.8 million previously reported jobs. This year was no exception with a reduction of -3.7 million based on the originally released numbers.

Here is the BLS Commissioner’s explanation:
“In accordance with annual practice, the establishment survey data released today have been benchmarked to reflect comprehensive counts of payroll jobs for March 2025. These counts are derived principally from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), which counts jobs covered by the Unemployment Insurance (UI) tax system. The benchmark process results in revisions to not seasonally adjusted data from April 2024 forward. Seasonally adjusted data from January 2021 forward are subject to revision. In addition, data for some series prior to 2021, both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted, incorporate other revisions.”

Despite the massive annual adjustment in employment, and the rise of Unadjusted U3 from 4.1% to 4.6%  the Commissioner reported:

“Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 130,000 in January, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, social assistance, and construction, while federal government and financial activities lost jobs…

Both the unemployment rate, at 4.3 percent, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.4 million, changed little in January. These measures are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 4.0 percent, and the number of unemployed people was 6.9 million.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for teenagers declined to 13.6 percent in January. The jobless rates for adult men (3.8 percent), adult women (4.0 percent), and people who are White (3.7 percent), Black (7.2 percent), Asian (4.1 percent), or Hispanic (4.7 percent) showed little change over the month.”

As always, the Commissioner is talking about adjusted “Household Survey” numbers. Establishment Survey numbers tell a different story. Typically, January is one of the highest unemployment months, which explains the large differential between the adjusted and unadjusted numbers.

Current Unemployment Rate Chart

As we can see, unemployment is above pre-COVID lows of 2019 and the January and April lows of 2023.

Current Employment Rate

At 156.714 million in January,  the Unadjusted Establishment Survey report shows a whopping decrease of -3.7 million jobs from November’s originally released numbers.

See Current Employment  for more information.

BLS: January 2026 Employment by Sector

The BLS employment “bubble chart” based on the Establishment Survey Data gives us a good picture of the Seasonally Adjusted employment numbers.

The Bubble’s Size tells us the total Employment for that industry (i.e., larger bubbles mean more people are employed in that sector).

The bubble’s location on the chart tells us that there has been a change in Employment Levels over the most recent month… A bubble further to the right indicates larger job growth. A bubble’s vertical location on the chart shows the average industry salary.

Remember, these are Seasonally Adjusted Numbers, so they aren’t cumulative!

Looking at the above chart, we can see that four sectors were below zero (i.e., left of the zero line, i.e., lost workers). But average weekly wages increased.

BLS Average Weekly Wages

BLS Employment Levels by Industry

January 2026, Seasonally Adjusted Employment

Note: The monthly increase is Seasonally Adjusted, so even though December and January Employment is down from 608,000 to 603,000, for Mining and Logging, the adjusted numbers indicate that employment was down by -2,000.

Source: BLS

ADP^® National Employment Report

ADP provides an independent (non-government) estimate of private-sector employment and pay, based on data derived from ADP client payrolls. According to ADP®, In collaboration with Stanford Digital Economy Lab.

Note: The numbers are released a few days before the BLS numbers and are often quite different. But these numbers are actually quite close to the BLS seasonally adjusted numbers.

ADP: Private employers added 22,000 jobs in January

• In a lackluster month for hiring, health care was a standout, adding 74,000 jobs. Leading the slowdown was manufacturing, which has lost jobs every month since March 2024, professional and business services, and large employers.

Source: ADP®

ADP Private Employment by Establishment Size

ADP Job Gainers / Losers

Unemployment

Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment fell to 4.4% from 4.5% in November.

Less Than Full Employment

This chart compares employment levels with the (inverted) unemployment rate.

Full Employment is when everyone who wants a job has one. It is generally considered to be around 3%. After the unemployment rate almost touched the magic full employment line in April 2023, it began moving away (i.e., higher unemployment).

Note: The Unemployment rate is inverted to track the employment rate. Neither is Seasonally Adjusted. For more information see Employment vs. Unemployment.

Note: Full employment is not considered to be at zero percent because even when employers are having difficulty finding employees, some people are still unemployed due to either:

1. structural unemployment (mismatch between worker skills and job requirements, i.e., not enough training) or
2. frictional unemployment There will always be people who have quit or have lost a seasonal job and are in the process of getting a new job. Or Simply because they quit their job knowing it would be easy to find another (hopefully better) job.

Seasonally Adjusted U1 through U6 Unemployment Rates

Labor Force Participation Rate

The LFPR rose to 62.5% in January. 

Note: A rising LFPR means that a greater portion of the Non-Institutional population is in the Labor Force.

The Labor Force Participation Rate is the percentage of the Non-Institutional Population that makes up the Labor Force.

And the Employment – Population Ratio is the percentage of the Total Population that is Employed.  We created a chart to help explain the difference. The Employment–Population Ratio is the percentage of the largest circle to the smallest circle in this diagram. In contrast, the LFPR is the relationship of the 2nd largest circle to the 3rd largest circle (entire green circle).

Employment-Population Ratio

By Gender

This chart shows the Employment-Population Ratio by Gender. Men make up a much larger portion of the workforce, i.e., 67.5% of men are employed, and only 56.5% of women are employed. But…

As you can see, 20 years ago, back in 2005, over 72% of men were working and 57.4% of women were working. In 2008, the Great Recession caused a massive decline in employment for both men and women. By December of 2009, only 66.4% of men were working and 55.4% of women. Over the next decade and a half, women workers rebounded back to 56.4% but men only rebounded to 67.4%.

Employment-Population Ratio by Race

This chart shows the Employment-Population Ratio by Race (including both Men and Women). As we can see, Hispanics and Asians have the highest percentage of their population employed.

Read more on UnemploymentData.com.