Overall Economy Sees Big Job Growth, Industry Gains Slowed

Photo credit: Josh Beech on Unsplash

Despite fears that the Omicron COVID-19 variant could cause a significant downturn in new January employment, the Department of Labor reported that the private nonfarm economy added 467,000 jobs.

At the same time, jobs growth in industry slowed to a crawl: Preliminary labor data for January indicated that the manufacturing industry added just 13,000 new jobs last month, less than half the amount it gained in December.

The government figures are rosier than employment predictions produced earlier in the week by ADP, a private payroll company that puts out its own monthly report. The ADP predicted that the U.S. would lose 21,000 manufacturing and 301,000 overall jobs in January. The full IndustryWeek story is here and the press release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is here.

RELATED CONTENT

The Future of Valve Manufacturing is Already Here

Companies in the valve and control products industry are responding to a confluence of forces that are changing the landscape of manufacturing — automation, agility and digitalization to name a few.
New Technologies Solve Severe Cavitation Problems

An advanced anti-cavitation control valve design enabled by 3D metal printing solved a power plant’s severe cavitation problem and dramatically improved its bottom line.
PFAS Chemicals and PTFE: Should the Valve Industry Be Concerned?

Legislation moving through Congress could affect the future use of thousands of PFAS chemicals (per- and polyfluoroalkyl). The house passed H.R. 2467 in July of 2021 and, though the bill is general in nature, it assigns the responsibility to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for determining which PFAS chemicals will be controlled or banned altogether.