Washington — Feb. 1

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 157,000 in January and the unemployment rate moved up one percentage point to 7.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. Retail trade, construction, health care and wholesale trade added jobs over the month.

The number of unemployed persons, at 12.3 million, was little changed in January. The unemployment rate was 7.9 percent and has been at or near that level since September 2012, the government report said.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (7.3 percent), adult women (7.3 percent), teenagers (23.4 percent), whites (7 percent), blacks (13.8 percent) and Hispanics (9.7 percent) showed little or no change in January. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.5 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier.

In January, the number of long-term unemployed — those jobless for 27 weeks or more — was about unchanged, at 4.7 million, and accounted for 38.1 percent of the unemployed.

Both the employment-population ratio (58.6 percent) and the civilian labor force participation rate (63.6 percent) were unchanged in January.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons, at 8 million, changed little in January. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics