Good Jobs Rate Down Slightly

The good jobs (GGJ) rate was 44.7 percent in January. This is down from the rate measured in December (45.3 percent) but higher than in any January since Gallup began measuring it in 2010. The current rate is 0.6 percentage points higher than in January 2015 suggesting an underlying increase in full-time work beyond seasonal changes in employment.

In January, the percentage of U.S. adults who participated in the workforce by working full time, working part time or actively seeking and being available to work was 66.8 percent. This is down slightly from the rate in December (67.3 percent), and is the third month in a row that workforce participation has declined. It is also the first time since Gallup began tracking workforce participation in January 2010 that participation has declined from December to January. Gallup's workforce participation measure averaged 67.7 percent between January 2010 and June 2013, but since then has averaged about one percentage point lower, at 66.9 percent.

Gallup's unadjusted U.S. unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in January, statistically even with December's 5.6 percent and the lowest in any month since Gallup began tracking the measure in 2010. The unemployment rate in January 2015 was 7.1 percent. Gallup's U.S. unemployment rate represents the percentage of adults in the workforce who did not have any paid work in the past seven days, either for an employer or themselves, and who were actively looking for and available to work. Gallup's measure of underemployment in January was 14.0 percent, steady with December and in line with the rates since July 2015.