Updated at 9 a.m. ET
Hiring resumed just tepidly last month after a slump in December, as the labor market faces a long climb to recover the millions of jobs lost during the pandemic.
U.S. employers added 49,000 jobs in January, after a revised drop of 227,000 the month before. Unemployment fell to 6.3%, from 6.7% in December, as hundreds of thousands of people left the workforce.
Industries that saw notable job gains in January include business and professional services and finance, but bars and restaurants continued to lose jobs.