With politically charged economic rhetoric flying left and right in the throes of election season, it's often difficult to tell exactly how well the country's doing.

But Friday's surprisingly strong employment report left little room for question: The labor market has continued its impressive run of growth.

American employers generated 255,000 new positions last month – well above the roughly 180,000 analysts expected – according to a report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Professional and business services drummed up 70,000 jobs, while health care contributed another 43,000. Over the course of the last year, the two industries accounted for 550,000 and 477,000 new positions, respectively.

"Jobs reports like this, where everything comes up smelling of roses, are very rare," Joseph Lake, director of global forecasting at The Economist Intelligence Unit, wrote in a research note Friday. "The U.S. economy looks set to enjoy a blistering third quarter after a sluggish first half to 2016."

Manufacturing employment ticked up by 9,000 jobs for the sector's second consecutive month of growth – a good sign for an industry area that's struggled to maintain payrolls. Mining and logging companies' 7,000-position losses aside, there wasn't a single major sector profiled in the report that shed jobs in July.

"After the jolting swings in the payrolls numbers seen over the previous two months, we welcome a better-than-bland and somewhat reassuring report which indicates hiring in July edged above this year's trend," Mark Hamrick, Washington Bureau Chief and senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com, wrote in a research note Friday. "Manufacturing continues to struggle in the face of a less-than-supportive global backdrop, but the U.S. economy is hanging tough."

Upward revisions to previous employment metrics brought even more good news to the Friday report, as May's disappointing 11,000 additions were revised up to a slightly more respectable 24,000 positions. June, likewise, saw a 5,000-position bump, bringing the month's total to 292,000. June is now believed to have been the best month for the labor market since October.

Meanwhile, the domestic unemployment rate held steady at 4.9 percent, as more Americans appeared to seek out vacancies after long-term bouts with unemployment. The number of individuals not counted in the labor market contracted by 184,000 positions, and the labor force participation rate climbed to 62.8 percent – its highest level since April. Average hourly earnings were also up 2.6 percent over the year.

"Politically, this impressive rate of job creation will provide another boost to [Democratic nominee] Hillary Clinton's campaign," Lake said, suggesting that GOP nominee Donald Trump would have benefited from a weak jobs report or other "unexpected event" that could have been spun as the fault of the Obama administration. "An economic downturn would have been one such possible surprise, but the chances of that happening in the next three months are slim, given the health of the job market."

The country's gains and continued economic success – however modest it has been at times – are believed to have helped build up President Barack Obama's recent popularity, as his approval rating last month climbed to its highest level since early 2013.

Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at employment hub Glassdoor, wrote in a report this week that Americans' perception of the economy "can have a huge impact on presidential elections." Unwanted economic downturns historically have been "a harbinger of doom for the incumbent party."

It's still worth noting that not all job growth is created equal, and some sectors and industries are enjoying a disproportionate share of gains while others – like mining and manufacturing – are continuing to languish along.

"Meanwhile, we continue to see an uptick in hospitality and service jobs, which are generally lower-paying," Tara Sinclair, chief economist at employment hub Indeed, wrote in a research note Friday. "So while the headline figure is good and proves the versatility of the U.S. labor market, the types of jobs [being added] causes concern about long-term economic strength and growth."

At least for the time being, though, the fact that tens of thousands of jobs are continuing to spring out of the ground each month is good news for Obama – and for Clinton.