The newly released January jobs report smashed expectations as it almost doubled what was predicted.
According to Fox Business:
U.S. hiring topped expectations in January, as the economy added 225,000 jobs, kicking off the decade on a stronger-than-expected note.
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Unemployment ticked up slightly to 3.6 percent, as more people were looking for work, the Labor Department said Friday. The labor force participation rate edged up slightly to 63.4 percent. Average hourly earnings, meanwhile, rose by 7 cents over the past year to $28.44.
“Taken together, the first report of 2020 is a healthy one — showing that a possible redux of the roaring twenties updated for the 21st Century isn’t off the table yet,” Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor senior economist, said.
Powered by an unseasonably warm winter, the first payroll number 2020 surged past the estimate of 160,000 from economists surveyed by Refinitiv, who also saw the unemployment rate holding steady from December’s 3.5 percent, a half-century low.
This is the 112th straight month of gains for the surging US economy.
