Payrolls surged by 467,000 in January, confounding economists
CBSN
Job growth around the U.S. was robust in January with employers adding 467,000 new hires, surprising economists who had forecast that the COVID-19 wave caused by the Omicron variant would dampen payrolls.
The leisure and hospitality sector led the increase, adding 151,000 jobs in January, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday. Professional and business services added 86,000 jobs, while retail added 61,000.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4% as more people entered the workforce to look for jobs. In another positive sign for the labor market, the participation rate — a measure of people working or looking for jobs — rose to 62.2%.
A cybercriminal group claims it stole personal data belonging to more than 500 million Ticketmaster customers. Although the event ticketing service, owned by Live Nation Entertainment, hasn't confirmed the attack, security experts warn that it could put users of the platform at risk for a range of scams.
Two climbers were waiting to be rescued near the peak of Denali, a colossal mountain that towers over miles of vast tundra in southern Alaska, officials said Wednesday. Originally part of a three-person team that became stranded near the top of the mountain, the climbers put out a distress call more than 30 hours earlier suggesting they were hypothermic and unable to descend on their own, according to the National Park Service.
There's no making up for what Olympic hurdler Lashinda Demus lost on the day she finished .07 seconds behind a Russian opponent who, everyone later learned, was doping. What the American 400-meter hurdles champion will finally receive is a great day under the Eiffel Tower where she'll be presented with the gold medal she was denied 12 years ago at the London Olympics.