Job growth slowed in January, with just 600 jobs in accounting

Employers added 143,000 jobs in January, including 600 in accounting, tax preparation and payroll services, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, and the unemployment rate edged down one-tenth of a point to 4.0%.

The job gains fell short of economists’ forecasts and mainly occurred in health care, retail trade, and social assistance. But employment declined in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industries.

In January, average hourly earnings rose 17 cents, or 0.5%, to $35.87. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings increased 4.1%. 

The BLS revised upward the job numbers for November and December 2024, with the November number going up by 49,000, from 212,000 to 261,000, and December’s number revised up by 51,000, from 256,000 to 307,000. With these revisions, employment in November and December 2024 combined was 100,000 higher. However, the annual revisions also lowered the average monthly job gains for 2024 to 166,000.

This was the first month the BLS was reporting under the Trump administration.

“Today’s jobs report reveals the Biden economy was far worse than anyone thought, and underscores the necessity of President Trump’s pro-growth policies,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement. “During his first weeks in office, President Trump declared a national energy emergency to ‘Make America Energy Dominant Again,’ pledged to cut 10 regulations for every new regulatory action, and outlined a plan to deliver the largest tax cut in history for hardworking Americans.”

Democrats took the opposite view. 

“First jobs report of the Trump era, and we will see a flood of Republicans celebrating a number that pales in comparison to the success of the greatest job creator in history: Joe Biden,” said House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Richard Neal, D-Massachusetts, in a statement. “The report proves that even in the face of great economic strength, Trump’s slowdown is on the way. Attacks on the workforce, rampant instability for small businesses with the Trump Trade War, and siphoning off entire industries will have real, devastating consequences, and that’s just what he lodged at the economy this week. When combined with the effects of an unpaid-for tax bonanza for the richest few, our economy will have been handed over to billionaires on the backs of our workers. The people deserve to have their needs put first, rather than the chaos coming from co-Presidents Trump and Musk.”

His Republican counterpart, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Missouri, issued his own reaction, referring to the impact on accountants and their small-business clients if the Trump tax cuts expire this year.

With President Trump in the White House, Republicans have achieved more in 17 days to help Americans than President Biden did in four years of failed economic policies that wiped away family savings and raised prices,” Smith said in a statement. “The Republican House and Senate will keep up the momentum and must quickly and permanently extend the Trump tax cuts and provide relief to families. If not, workers and small businesses will be left wondering whether their taxes will go up in just a few months as part of the largest tax hike in American history. Instead of deploying capital today in new facilities and new workers, small businesses are calling accountants to figure out how to navigate a potential 43.4% tax rate if the Trump tax cuts expire. We must take action quickly in one, big beautiful bill to create jobs that support families and ignite the second Trump economic boom. Failure is not an option.”