Key Takeaways:
- BLS Report Shows Subpar Jobs Growth, Lower Jobless Rate
- Google Ends Diversity-Based Hiring Goals
- Dell Calls Workforce Back to the Office Five Days a Week
- Southwest Airlines Sued for Underperforming 401(k) Fund
- Spanish Court Rules Single Parents Should Get Same Paid Leave as Couples
BLS Report Shows Subpar Jobs Growth, Lower Jobless Rate
American employers added 143,000 jobs in January, fewer than economists expected, but the nation’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4% (from 4.1%), beating forecasts. This is according to data released Friday, Feb. 7, by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Dow Jones forecasters had predicted 169,000 new jobs for the month after the BLS reported a surprisingly large 256,000 increase for December.
Among industry sectors in January:
- Healthcare added 44,000 jobs, with gains in hospitals (+14,000), nursing and residential care facilities (+13,000), and home healthcare services (+11,000). Job growth in healthcare averaged 57,000 per month in 2024.
- Employment in retail trade increased by 34,000. Job gains occurred in general merchandise retailers (+31,000), and furniture and home furnishings retailers (+5,000). Electronics and appliance retailers lost 7,000 jobs. Retail trade employment showed little net change in 2024.
- Social assistance added 22,000 jobs, led by individual and family services (+20,000). Employment also rose in the community food and housing, emergency, and other relief services industry (+4,000). Employment in social assistance grew by an average of 20,000 per month in 2024.
- Government employment continued to trend up (+32,000), similar to the average monthly gain in 2024 (+38,000).
- Employment in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry declined by 8,000, following little net change in 2024. The job loss was concentrated in support activities for mining (-8,000).
- Employment showed little change over the month in other major industries, including construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and other services.
The BLS report covering January also showed:
- Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 17 cents, or 0.5%, to $35.87. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.1%. In January, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 16 cents, or 0.5%, to $30.84.
- The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged down by 0.1 hour to 34.1 hours. In manufacturing, the average workweek was little changed at 40.0 hours, and overtime was unchanged at 2.8 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased by 0.2 hour to 33.5 hours.
- The 4.0% unemployment rate accounted for the annual adjustments to the population controls. The number of unemployed people, at 6.8 million, changed little over the month. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.7%), adult women (3.7%), teenagers (11.8%), whites (3.5%), Blacks (6.2%), Asians (3.7%), and Hispanics (4.8%) showed little or no change.
Google Ends Diversity-Based Hiring Goals
As reported by Reuters, Google announced in an email to staff on Wednesday, Feb. 5, that it was ending its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring goals (also known as equitable and diverse workplaces). The tech company attributed the change to President Donald’s Trump executive orders and recent court decisions.
In 2020, Google CEO Sundar Pichai set a goal to have 30% more of its leaders from underrepresented groups by 2025. At the time, about 96% of Google’s U.S. leaders were white or Asian, and 73% globally were men. Google chief diversity officer Melonie Parker said in a 2024 interview with the BBC that the company had hit 60% of its five-year goals.
In its most recent annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) showed it omitted a line saying it was “committed to making diversity, equity and inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve.”
That statement appeared in annual reports from 2021 to 2024. An Alphabet spokesperson said the line was removed to reflect its review of DEI programs.
Dell Calls Workforce Back to the Office Five Days a Week
Starting March 3, all hybrid and remote team members who live near a Dell office will have to work in the office five days a week, according to an email sent to staff by CEO Michael Dell on Jan. 31.
According to the email viewed by Business Insider (BI), employees who live far from a Dell office will be allowed to continue working remotely.
However, according to an internal FAQ document seen by BI, remote workers will not be eligible for promotion through the tech company’s annual pay planning process without approval from senior leaders. The company also wrote in the document that “all future roles will be hired at a specific Dell office and will no longer be offered as remote.”
In September, the company informed its entire global sales team they would be required to work in the office full time. Additionally, it previously asked manufacturing teams, engineers in the labs, on-site team members and leaders to be in the office five days a week.
Southwest Airlines Sued for Underperforming 401(k) Fund
Southwest Airlines was hit with a class-action lawsuit on Jan. 29, alleging that it breached basic fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and violated its fiduciary duties by mismanaging the company’s retirement savings plan over a span of 15 years, according to an announcement from law firm Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight.
The complaint, Anderson et al v. Southwest Airlines, stated Southwest selected the Harbor Capital Fund as a plan investment option on or before 2010. By December 2018, the cumulative investment performance of the Harbor Capital Fund lagged its benchmark — the Russell 1000 Growth Index — over the preceding three, five and nine years. It also underperformed other large cap growth alternatives over the same periods. Yet, Southwest took no action to replace the Harbor Capital Fund.
The two named plaintiffs filed this case on behalf of the Southwest plan, which has almost 60,000 participants and $14 billion in assets. As relief, plaintiffs and the class seek repayment of the plan’s financial losses, removal of imprudent investments, and the removal of the fiduciaries who have violated their duties to the plan’s participants and beneficiaries under ERISA.
Spanish Court Rules Single Parents Should Get Same Paid Leave as Couples
A regional court in Spain recently ruled single parents can request the same total amount of paid parental leave as couples. According to the New York Times, the decision is the first to stem from a November ruling by Spain’s constitutional court that barred discrimination against children born into single-parent families.
The Times reported single parents can request the full amount of paid leave that Spanish couples are entitled to — six weeks of mandatory leave that must be taken together, plus an additional 10 for each parent, a total of 16 weeks per parent. For a single person serving as both parents, that adds up to 32 weeks of paid leave, according to the regional court’s ruling.
Editor’s Note: Additional Content
For more information and resources related to this article, see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics:
