When it comes to jobs, it turns out that our gut feeling was right.

New data released last week showed that the Buffalo Niagara job market last year was stronger than the tepid numbers initially reported in January.

In fact, 2016 was the best year for hiring in the last 17 years. And with hiring on the upswing, wages also are on the rise, giving workers a double-dose of good news.

While the cranes and the flurry of construction made it easy to see that something good was happening in the Buffalo Niagara region, the skeptics among us wanted statistical proof that what we were seeing really was different this time.

And until last week, the numbers sometimes told a very different story from the buzz we were feeling in the community. Those numbers initially said 2016 was just another average year in the Buffalo Niagara region, not much different from any of the previous five years, and not even as good as 2011. And nobody looks back on 2011 as the good old days.

Not anymore.