NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - I'm always surprised when someone complains about "too many numbers," as though numbers were somehow bad.

Numbers are markers, they're gauges, and they often resonate dramatically: "I'm turning 30" ... "I won with 52% of the vote" ... "the economy has now created (or lost!) two million jobs," etc. That's why the monthly employment report is so closely watched on Wall Street and why it often reverberates beyond the boundaries of the financial markets.

Number one, it's the first indicator of the nationwide economy to come out each month. It covers all 50 states, it includes all sectors from manufacturing to retail jobs, it contains everything from the number of discouraged workers to the average weekly paycheck. In other words, it's comprehensive.

And because it's the first big number of the month, and because hiring or firing is an indicator of how businesses are doing, it gives investors and policymakers a monthly check-up on the health of the economy. If the job market is shifting, it may be a signal it's time to shift investment strategies or interest rates as well.

Beyond that, a personal job is the bedrock of one's life, even of one's family. If you have one, if you're doing well and making good money, you have the basic ingredient of a sweet life. Go through a time when you lose your job unexpectedly, when you can't just walk out and find another one, and you will be reminded very quickly and graphically just how sweet having a job can be.

Do Wall Street folks obsess over the monthly jobs report (146,000 jobs added in January by the way) and dissect a long list of numbers to death?

You bet they do. But then, when it comes to jobs, don't we all obsess, too?

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-- Kathleen Hays is economics correspondent for CNN and contributes to Lou Dobbs Tonight.