Despite a renewed onslaught of COVID-19 infections caused by the Omicron variant, the US economy added 467,000 jobs in January, the government said on Friday, far more than had been expected.

The Labour Department report, which also showed the unemployment rate rising slightly to four per cent, was a positive surprise for the world’s largest economy since many analysts expected it had either seen weak or negative hiring in the first month of 2022.

Major industries that hired last month included the bars and restaurants that comprise the leisure and hospitality sector, which gained the most of any sector with 151,000 positions. Professional and business services added 86,000 positions and retail trade 61,000.

Overall, the economy had added 19.1 million jobs since the nadir of the COVID-19 crisis in April 2020, but it is still short 2.9 million positions, the data said.

There were signs of the coronavirus’s impact in the data, including a jump to six million in the number of people who said they couldn’t work because their employer’s business was closed or otherwise affected by the pandemic. 

Six million people who said they couldn’t work because their employer’s business was closed or otherwise affected by the pandemic

In December, only 3.1 million workers were in this position.The government also revised its data for 2021, and said employment that year was higher by 217,000 jobs than first reported.