The US labor market in January is virtually stagnant, with the situation of "hire low, fire low" continuing.

A report released on Wednesday by the American automatic data processing company ADP showed that the US labor market remained almost stagnant in January, with job growth even falling below already fairly modest market expectations. The data revealed that the private sector only added 22,000 jobs in January. If it weren't for an unexpected increase of 74,000 jobs in the education and healthcare industries, overall employment would have seen negative growth. This result not only fell short of the revised down 37,000 jobs added in December, but also significantly missed the Dow Jones survey's expectation of 45,000 jobs. This report indicates that the beginning of 2026 has essentially continued the state of 2025: a labor market with weak hiring and minimal layoffs. This situation is likely to exacerbate concerns among Federal Reserve policymakers about the need for more support for the economy.