"The [payroll] report was much better than expected in terms of indicating fundamental strength in the economy"
- Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision Economics
The number of Americans, who have found a job in January rose to nine-month high of 243,000, said the Labor Department on Friday, pushing unemployment rate lower to 8.3 per cent, the lowest in three years.
"The payroll gains we're seeing in this report are consistent with significant improvement in consumer spending," said Carl Riccadonna, a senior U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York. "If we hold at these levels, it will change a lot of expectations for economic growth, the labor market recovery, inflation and the Fed's policy response."
"The report was much better than expected in terms of indicating fundamental strength in the economy," said Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision Economics in New York.
"This is the kind of data that will challenge the Fed's wisdom of putting a late 2014 date on prospective tightening," said Alan Ruskin, head of G10 currency strategy at Deutsche Bank in New York. "The data plays strongly against QE3, although the Fed will surely keep it in the wings."
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