The US jobs market is on fire (DIA, SPY, QQQ, TLT, IWM)
<img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/54d4c9f2ecad04223dfbf74c-678-496/screen-shot-2015-02-06-at-9.03.51-am.png" alt="jobs" border="0">
The January Jobs Report was very strong.
Nonfarm payrolls in the US grew by 257,000 in January, while the unemployment rate rose to 5.7% from 5.6%.
<span style="line-height: 22.5px;">The November and December jobs reports were also revised up in a big way. November's report was revised up to job gains of 423,000 from a prior report of 353,000. December's job gains were revised higher to 329,000 from 252,000.</span>
<span style="line-height: 22.5px;">On Twitter, David Wessel of the Brookings Institution noted that with these revisions, November marked the strongest single month for job growth since November 1997. </span>
<span style="line-height: 22.5px;">These revisions also make the last three months the best three months for job gains in 17 years.</span>
<span style="line-height: 22.5px;">"We keep trying to tell everyone that the US economy is enjoying a period of unusual strength, maybe now people will believe us," said Capital Economics' Paul Ashworth in a note titled "US labor market on fire."
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Average hourly earnings also topped expectations, rising 0.5% in January compared to the prior month and rising 2.2% compared to the prior year.
These gains were both better than expected.
Here were Wall Street's expectations, via Bloomberg:
<ul>
<li>Nonfarm payrolls: +230,000</li>
<li>Unemployment rate: 5.6%</li>
<li>Average hourly earnings, month-on-month: +0.3%</li>
<li>Average hourly earnings, year-on-year: +1.9%</li>
<li>Average weekly hours worked: 34.6</li>
</ul>
<span style="line-height: 22.5px;">The US labor market is currently in the midst of its longest streak of monthly payrolls adds over 200,000 since the mid-90s.</span>
<span style="line-height: 22.5px;">Friday's report marked the 12th straight month of payroll gains over 200,000.</span>
<span style="line-height: 22.5px;">The unemployment rate rose slightly from last month, but is still at levels last seen in July 2008.</span>
<span style="line-height: 22.5px;">In addition to an increase in the unemployment rate, the labor force participation rate also increased, to 62.9% from 62.7%. Average weekly hours worked also rose held steady at 34.6.</span>
<span style="line-height: 22.5px;">The "U-6" unemployment rate, which includes workers that are unemployed and those working part time but want full-time work, rose slightly to 11.3% from 11.2% last month.</span>
<span style="line-height: 22.5px;"><span>According to the BLS, "</span><span>Job gains occurred in retail trade, construction, health care, financial activities, and manufacturing."</span></span>
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