UKG: U.S. Labor Market Remains on Solid Footing Despite Anticipated B.L.S. Downward Employment Revisions

February 04, 2025 at 08:00 AM EST

UKG:

Summary:	According to the UKG Workforce Activity Report for January 2025, the U.S. labor market remains on solid footing. While workforce activity declined -4.2% in January, the decrease can be attributed to a combination of predicted post-holiday reductions coupled with temporary disruptions created by severe weather and natural disasters.

Commentary:	Edward Hearn, Ph.D., Lead Labor Economist, UKG
	“Working activity remained steadily resilient through the first month of 2025, even with a more disruptive post-holiday season than usual. While B.L.S. yearly revisions in this month’s report are expected to incorporate decreases in payrolls in 2024, our UKG data firmly shows the U.S. labor force is still on solid ground.”

Industry Spotlight:	UKG now tracks ten separate industries:
	Energy: -13.2% Financial Services: 2.6% Healthcare: -2.6% Higher Education: -16.0% K-12 Education: 17.3%	Life Sciences: 4.8% Manufacturing: -5.9% Public Sector: -0.3% Retail, food service, and hospitality: -5.9% Services and Distribution: -4.0%

Learn More:	Register to attend the UKG Labor Market Briefing series, where UKG explores trends across industries, size segments, and regions in greater detail. The next briefing is today, February 4, at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Significance:	The UKG Workforce Activity Report analyzes trends in shift work at U.S. businesses through a weekly sample of more than 6.2 million workers. The report delivers insights to CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CHROs, and other business leaders that require a dynamic view of the labor market. Upcoming publication schedule:
	Workforce Activity Report for February 2025: March 4, 2025 Workforce Activity Report for March 2025: April 1, 2025 Workforce Activity Report for April 2025: April 29, 2025

About UKG

At UKG, our purpose is people. We are on a mission to inspire every organization to become a great place to work through HCM technology built for all. More than 80,000 organizations across all sizes, industries, and geographies trust UKG HR, payroll, workforce management, and culture cloud solutions to drive great workplace experiences and make better, more confident people and business decisions. With the world’s largest collection of people data, work data, and culture data combined with rich experience using artificial intelligence in the service of people, we connect culture insights with business outcomes to show what’s possible when organizations invest in their people. To learn more, visit ukg.com.

Follow UKG on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, and YouTube.

Copyright 2025 UKG Inc. All rights reserved. For a full list of UKG trademarks, please visit ukg.com/trademarks. All other trademarks, if any, are property of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change.