Jobless Rate Creeps Up to 7.4% as Holiday Work Ends

WASHINGTON — The nation’s unemployment rate rose to 7.4% in January, up 0.2% over the previous month, as the ranks of the jobless grew by 300,000, the government said today. Many of those were laid-off Christmas workers who failed to find new jobs.

The number of Americans holding jobs rose about 120,000 to a record 106.4 million, but the total of the unemployed grew to 8.5 million, the Labor Department said.

(The jobless rate in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area rose a full percentage point last month to 8.0%, and California’s unemployment rate rose from 7.0% to 7.3%, the department said. For California, it was the first jump in unemployment since November.)

Department analyst Deborah Klein, discussing the national figure, said more seasonally employed women laid off after the Christmas season decided to look for new jobs last month than had been the case in recent years.

She said the January survey was done unusually early--in the second week of the month. Many of the recently laid-off people looking for work might have given up the search later in the month, in which case they would not have been counted among the unemployed had the survey been conducted later.

There was widespread stability among other worker groups, after the figures were adjusted for seasonal variations. Jobless rates stayed the same as in December for adult men, teen-agers, blacks, Hispanics and black teen-agers.

At the White House, presidential spokesman Larry Speakes said the January rate “represents end-of-the-year volatility,” and added:

“We know the economy is strong and growing and will continue to create jobs in 1985.”

But Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.) told a congressional hearing, “We’re starting out (the year) with some very disquieting and disturbing figures.”