US nonfarm payrolls disappoint for second straight month

The US labour market recovery disappointed for a second consecutive month in January, showing only modest job growth in the first few weeks of the new year.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.4%, or 49,000, month-on-month, following a downwardly revised 227,000 print for December, while the unemployment rate fell to 6.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The BLS added that the market continued to reflect the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures taken to contain it. However, the unemployment rate came in at 6.3%, just shy of the 6.7% expected on the Street.

In January, notable job gains in professional and business services, and in both public and private education, were offset by losses in leisure and hospitality, retail trade, health care and in transportation and warehousing.