It's official: January marked the record 100th consecutive month of consecutive job growth, and it did so in style, with the US adding a whopping 304K jobs last month, nearly double the 165K expected, however much of this appears to have come at the expense of a revised December number which was revised lower from 312K to 222K.

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for November was revised up from +176,000 to +196,000, and as noted above, the change for December was revised down from +312,000 to +222,000. With these revisions, employment gains in November and December combined were 70,000 less than previously reported. After revisions, job gains have averaged 241,000 per month over the last 3 months.

Curiously, according to the report, "there were no discernible impacts of the partial federal government shutdown on the estimates of employment, hours, and earnings from the establishment survey", and yet household employment fell by 251,000 to 156.694 million thanks to the shutdown, which also explains the rise in the U-3 and U-6 unemployment rates.

Perhaps more importantly, the average hourly earnings grew by 3.2% for a second consecutive month, with December revised slightly lower from 3.3% to 3.2%. However, on a monthly basis, earnings rose only 0.1%, the lowest rate since October 2017, and below the 0.3% expected increase, providing some more fuel to the Fed's dovish fire.

In January, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 3 cents to $27.56, following a 10-cent gain in December. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 85 cents, or 3.2 percent. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 3 cents to $23.12 in January.

The average workweek for all employees was unchanged at 34.5 hours in January. In manufacturing, both the workweek and overtime decreased by 0.1 hour to 40.8 hours and 3.5 hours, respectively. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls held at 33.7 hours.

The unemployment rate rose again, printing at 4.0%, up from 3.9% last month, and above the 3.9% expected.

Of note, the underemployment (U-6) rate, saw a big jump, from 7.6% to 8.1%, rising by the most since May 2009.

More notably, the labor force participation rate rose again, hitting 63.2%, the highest level since March 2014 as more people jump back into the labor force.

As the BLS notes, the number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) increased by about one-half million to 5.1 million in January.

Nearly all of this increase occurred in the private sector and may reflect the impact of the partial federal government shutdown.

Some other details: