EmailNonfarm payrolls increased by 243,000 in January, up from 203,000 in December and well above the Briefing.com consensus estimate of 155,000.
The gain in payrolls is in-line with the recent decline in the initial claims level. That data showed business layoffs fell to three-year lows.
Excluding the government sector, private payrolls increased by 257,000 in January after adding 220,000 jobs in December. The consensus expected nonfarm private payrolls to increase by 168,000.
That was the largest increase in private payrolls since 264,000 jobs were added in April. Over the last three months, the private sector has added 655,000 positions.
Payroll growth was widespread.
Led by a 50,000 increase in manufacturing jobs and a 21,000 increase in construction employment, goods-producing firms added 81,000 jobs in January. That is up from 71,000 in December and 8,000 in November.
Service-producing companies added 176,000 jobs with professional and business services adding 70,000 jobs and leisure and hospitality increasing payrolls by 44,000.
Hourly earnings increased 0.2% in January, up from 0.1% in December, and the average workweek remained at December's upwardly revised 34.5 hours.
Altogether, the increase in earnings and payrolls led to a 0.4% increase in aggregate income levels. That level is indicative of strong consumption growth.
Finally, the unemployment rate dropped from 8.5% in December to 8.3% in January. The consensus expected the unemployment rate to remain at 8.5%.
Surprisingly, the labor participation rate dropped from 64.0 in December to 63.7 in January while, at the same time, the employment-to-population ratio remained at December levels. That means the drop in the unemployment rate was not the result of stronger employment numbers -- which would have been expected from the large payroll gain -- but from a decline in the labor force.
