Posted originally on CTH on February 11, 2026 | Sundance

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics releases the employment figures for January today [BLS DATA HERE].  Overall, in the establishment survey, 130,000 jobs were added and the unemployment rate fell to 4.3%.  This is much stronger than anticipated and there are indications of significant movement back to work as the exfiltration of illegal alien workers continues.

Via WSJ – “The U.S. added 130,000 jobs in January, surging past expectations and marking a strong start to the year following a weak year of job growth. The January numbers from the Labor Department were above the seasonally adjusted 48,000 jobs added in December, which were revised slightly lower. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal were expecting 55,000 jobs in January.

The unemployment rate, which is based on a separate survey from the jobs figures, fell to 4.3% from 4.4%.” (more)

What I find interesting in the Household ‘Employment’ Survey is the number of people going back into the workforce.  I am left to wonder if the ICE removals are starting to create employer driven incentives, increased wages etc. that seem to be pulling sidelined workers back to the labor market.

[SOURCE]

528,000 more people employed. The unemployed dropped by 141,000, and the number of people not in the labor force dropped by 221,000.

A very interesting result.