US economy: Here’s what makes a jobs report ‘shocking’

It’s the latest unexpected plot twist in the Covid-19 economy and proved yet again that no one really knows what’s going to happen next.

When it appears things will zig, they zag.

Jared Bernstein, who sits on the White House Council of Economic Advisers, had said the number of jobs added in January would be “unusually low” due to the impact of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, which pay people lots of money to know these things, predicted job losses.

A survey of economists suggested modest gains — perhaps 150,000 new jobs added to US payrolls.

Instead, jaws hit the floor when the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its report Friday and it showed job growth — strong job growth!

The US economy added 467,000 positions last month.

Despite Omicron tearing through the country, restaurants and bars added more than 100,000 jobs.

Read the full breakdown from CNN’s Anneken Tappe.

Revisions aplenty. There’s more to the story than just…

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