New from NCCI: Labor Market Insights and Adverse Weather (both hot and cold temperatures) and Impact on WC Claims:
Labor Market Insights — full report
- The economy added a robust 130,000 jobs overall and 172,000 jobs in the private sector to begin 2026. Both numbers vastly exceeded economists’ expectations. The 3-month average of private sector employment growth was 103,000.
At an industry level, employment growth in January was still largely concentrated in health care, adding 123,500 of the 172,000 private sector employment gain. However, January also saw strong gains of 34,000 in professional services and 33,000 in construction, both key areas for workers compensation premium.
- January saw a second consecutive decrease in the unemployment rate while prime age labor force participation rose to its highest level since January 2000. These data points may be an early signal that the labor market is starting to strengthen.
Annual Benchmark Revisions: This report also incorporated the benchmark revisions that were announced in August of last year. The final revisions lowered employment between April 2024 to March 2025 by 862,000. This brought full year employment gains for 2024 from 2m to 1.5m and for 2025 from 584,000 to just 181,000. With an average of 15,000 jobs added per month, 2025 was the slowest pace of employment growth outside of a recession since 2003.
Big Picture: A strong start to 2026 for the labor market overall, however recent revisions have been skewed to the downside, suggesting more information will be needed before we gain more confidence in a labor market rebound.
Adverse Weather and WC Claims With Patrick Coate – State of the Line Podcast
NCCI expert Patrick Coate joins the State of the Line Podcast to provide an in-depth look at how adverse weather conditions (both hot and cold temperatures) can affect work injuries and, therefore, workers compensation claims.
