January's Employment Report was unequivocally strong and points to a rapidly improving labour market. Non-farm payrolls increased by 243,000, a nine-month high, up from 203,000 in December. That was well above the consensus forecast at 140,000. As a result of the benchmark revision to the historical data, the level of employment at the end of last year was revised up by a further 266,000. And the unemployment rate fell to a three-year low of 8.3% in January, from 8.5%.
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