The Labor Market Continues to Make Hiring Tough

Hiring started the year with a bang. The seasonally adjusted total of 467,000 jobs added in January was at least double economists’ expectations. And many had braced for job losses due to the omicron surge during the holidays. The report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was a promising sign to start a year with more locations and industries scheduled to fully recover all the jobs lost during the pandemic.