The United States economy added a surprising 467,000 jobs during the month of January, while the unemployment rate only rose slightly by 4% from 3.9%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly employment report obtained by NBC News on Friday (February 4).
Additionally, the report released on Friday revised a previously reported 199,000 jobs added in December 2021, which it said was actually 510,000.
The updated total number of jobs created in December which was greater than the 422,000 expected by economists.
The data suggests that the economy is seeing far more resiliency than economists predicted, even with the recent surge in COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant.
Some economists predicted a gain of only 150,000 jobs, while others expected the economy to lose up to 400,000, NBC News reports.
The data released on Friday comes two days after a private-sector payrolls report said 301,000 jobs were lost in January and a week after White House officials said the upcoming jobs report "could look a little strange," presuming far more pessimistic results.
“If you think about omicron in early January, and the impact it was having in terms of the number of people who were out sick, we do expect there to be some real variation in the data,” National Economic Council Director Brian Deese told CNBC last Friday (January 28).