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Jobs data still strong
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February 5, 1999: 8:58 a.m. ET
January payroll rise of 245,000 easily tops estimate; jobless rate remains 4.3%
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WASHINGTON (CNNfn) - U.S. employment cooled only slightly in January, with nonfarm payrolls increasing by 245,000 and the unemployment rate remaining steady at 4.3 percent, the Labor Department said Friday.
The increase was well above the 135,000 consensus of analysts surveyed by Reuters. The analysts' call for the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent
Muting the gains was a sharp downward revision in the December nonfarm payrolls increase to 298,000 from the originally reported 378,000.
"We're still seeing a strong economy," says Gary Thayer, senior economist at A.G. Edwards, in an interview with CNNfn. The report "shows that we still have very good job creation. I think it's very encouraging and a positive thing for American business."
Not so upbeat are Treasury investors as the U.S. 30-year bond added to its Friday losses after the report. It was down 18/32 to 99-10/32, yielding 5.32 percent; before the report's release, it was down 3/32.
Weekly work hours declined by about six minutes in the latest report, to 34.5 hours. But average hourly earnings, an indicator some investors watch as a sign of impending inflation, rose a higher-than-expected 0.5 percent to $13.04. 
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