Employers added a booming 517,000 jobs in January as hiring unexpectedly surged despite high inflation, rising interest rates and the prospect of a weakening economy.
The unemployment rate fell from 3.5% to 3.4%, lowest since 1969, the Labor Department said Friday. Unemployment for Black people declined to 5.4%, lowest on record dating to 1972
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast 185,000 job gains.
"The economy is clearly not as close to recession as we had suspected," economist Andrew Hunter of Capital Economics wrote in a note to clients.
The blockbuster jobs total will likely not be welcomed by a Federal Reserve looking for job gains and wage growth to slow to further reduce high inflation and bolster its plan to pause its aggressive interest rate hike campaign in coming months.
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