Over the last few weeks, there's been massive disruption in the labor market with President Donald Trump's administration moving to freeze federal aid and lay off tens of thousands of federal workers.

The Labor Department has released its first jobs report of the year, covering January 2025. It shows that payrolls grew by 143,000 — somewhat lower than economists’ expectations of 175,000. On the other hand, payroll growth for the end of 2024 was revised up quite a bit. Over the past 3 months, payroll growth has averaged a very strong 234,000.