Simple answer to the title question: No.
The number of employees in the private sector actually fell by 2.166 million. So why did the BLS report a huge increase in jobs? Seasonal adjustment.
Alan Reynolds makes this point in “Can a Seasonal Adjustment to Lost Jobs Justify a Tighter Fed?,” Cato at Liberty, February 6, 2023.
The number of jobs virtually always falls between December and January as various retailers and producers lay people off whom they hired for the Thanksgiving to Christmas season.
Seasonal adjustment is handy and important. But you have to remember whether you’re citing seasonally adjusted data or actual data.
