Wildfires, snow and holiday shopping. Here’s what likely influenced Friday’s jobs numbers

The US economy kicked off 2025 by adding 143,000 jobs in January, fewer than expected; but the unemployment rate dipped to 4%, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Economists were projecting the unemployment rate would stay at 4.1% and 170,000 jobs would be added, according to FactSet estimates.

While cold and severe weather as well as the wildfires in Los Angeles were expected to be influential factors on January’s report, they had “no discernible effect” on last month’s payroll numbers, earnings, hours worked or the unemployment rate, BLS officials noted.

Friday’s report also provided more clarity on recent labor market trends, indicating that job growth last year was weaker than previously estimated.

The latest benchmark revision — an annual process that squares up estimates — showed there were 589,000 fewer jobs added to the economy in 2024.

Accounting for the revisions, there were just shy of 2 million jobs added last year, amounting to roughly 166,000 jobs per month — a pace practically equal to what was seen in 2019.

In the years following the economy-upheaving pandemic, the labor market has slowed, but it has not collapsed. Growth has remained solid enough to fuel consumer spending and put the economy on track for a “soft landing” of reining in inflation without triggering a recession.

But there’s been some heightened concern in recent months: Job gains have slowed not because of mass layoffs, but because hiring activity has fallen off significantly.

Because of that, if there were to be a sudden turn in the economy, there would be little buffer for businesses to make a change, economists warn, noting companies are already “hiring like they’re in a recession.”

This story is developing and will be updated.