‘WOW! WOW!’ CNBC Anchor Stunned By Jobs Report Showing 517,000 Jobs Added — ‘A Blastoff of a Number!’

CNBC anchor Rick Santelli flipped over a January jobs report that saw “a blastoff number” of 517,000 jobs added, nearly tripling expectations.

Friday morning saw the release of a new jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that exceeded expectations by a country mile, especially given the Fed’s efforts to cool the economy. Including revisions, the total gain reported was a whisker shy of 600k:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 517,000 in January, and the unemployment rate changed little at 3.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job growth was widespread, led by gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and health care. Employment also increased in government, partially reflecting the return of workers from a strike.

…

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for November was revised up by 34,000, from +256,000 to +290,000, and the change for December was revised up by 37,000, from +223,000 to +260,000. With these revisions, employment gains in November and December combined were 71,000 higher than previously reported.

On Friday’s edition of CNBC’s Squawk Box, Santelli reported the numbers, exclaiming “Wow! Wow!” just seconds after predicting a much lower number of jobs added:

The numbers will be coming out shortly. We’re expecting 188 to 200,000. Wow! Wow! Whoever took the over, congratulations. 517,000! 517,000 nonfarm payrolls. A blastoff of a number! That’s the highest number since February of ’22 when it was 714,000. If you look at manufacturing payrolls, they were 19,000, three times expectations. Unemployment rate, 3.4. We crashed the half century barrier, a new post cycle low. That is unreal when you think about it. And average hourly earnings month over month up 3/10, which matches last month.

…And finally, labor force participation rate. Also pretty good news, 62.4. 62.4 actually equals the high watermark, which was March at 62.4. That’s really good news to find a higher one. You have to go to March right after Covid hit. So that’s March of 2020, where it was 62.6. So we’re looking pretty good there.

Watch above via CNBC.

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