(TNND) — American employers added 143,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The job growth was short of forecasts, but the labor market remains strong. And more jobs were added in November and December than initially reported.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecasted January job growth at 170,000 after the Labor Department originally reported 256,000 more jobs in December.

January’s actual job growth came in 27,000 under the projection, but the Labor Department said Friday that it was revising its December job growth to 307,000 – an increase of 51,000 jobs.

November job growth was also revised upward.

In total, employers added 100,000 more jobs at the end of 2024 than previously reported.

Employment has increased by an average of 168,000 jobs per month over the last year.

Labor economist Aaron Sojourner at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research said we’re seeing a strong labor market with low unemployment and strong wage growth.

“The labor market has stabilized in a relatively healthy spot,” Sojourner said via email. “Employees have experienced 4 years of record high job security, though it has also recently gotten harder for the small share of Americans seeking jobs to get hired. The biggest risks to our economy are from wild changes to government policy.”

As strong as the jobs market is, Sojourner said heading into Friday’s report that it was trending weaker. The signals were stronger a year ago, he said.

He’s particularly worried about hiring rates that are at a decade low, except for during the beginning of the pandemic.

But he noted that job security remains strong, with a low layoff rate in the labor market.

The economy added 2.02 million jobs over the last 12 months, which was in line with the prepandemic yearly totals.

Sojourner, who broke down Friday’s jobs report on Bluesky, said job growth is steady given the combination of braking actions from the Federal Reserve and high working-age employment rates.

The average workweek hours for private-sector employees edged down to 34.1 hours following a similar decline the month before. That’s not much movement, but Sojourner said it’s worth watching as a signal of softening demand.

The unemployment rate also edged down.

It came in at 4%, from 4.1% the month before.

The unemployment rate was the lowest since last May when the unemployment rate finally rose above 4% after more than two years below that threshold.

The number of long-term unemployed people (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was 1.44 million. That was down from recent months but up from 1.27 million a year ago.

Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick said the unemployment rate was “not too hot and not too cold.”

“While inflation has remained elevated, the still solid job market provides a solid underpinning for Americans to focus on their financial goals,” Hamrick said via email. “Affordability challenges abound given elevated prices and interest rates.”

The annual rate of inflation is 2.9%, according to the latest consumer price index.

Annual wage growth was 4.1%.

Hamrick said some of the wage growth reflected the fact that 21 states and dozens of municipalities raised their minimum wages in January, affecting an estimated 9 million Americans.

Sojourner called the private-sector wage growth “steady.”