Holy Cow! Blockbuster! GOBSMACKED! Stunned Fox Business Crew Blown Away By ‘Incredible’ Jobs Report

Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo let out a “Wow!” as Fox Business Network correspondent Cheryl Casone ticked through a January jobs report that had the entire panel gushing and saying they were “Gobsmacked!”

Friday morning saw the release of a new jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that showed 517,000 jobs added, nearly tripling expectations. Including revisions, the total gain reported was just shy of 600k:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 517,000 in January, and the unemployment rate changed little at 3.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job growth was widespread, led by gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and health care. Employment also increased in government, partially reflecting the return of workers from a strike.

…

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for November was revised up by 34,000, from +256,000 to +290,000, and the change for December was revised up by 37,000, from +223,000 to +260,000. With these revisions, employment gains in November and December combined were 71,000 higher than previously reported.

On Friday morning’s edition of Fox Business Network’s Mornings With Maria, Bartiromo laid out her expectations seconds ahead of the release:

MARIA BARTIROMO: All right. We’ve got 10 seconds left. Let’s review. Dow Industrials down 71 points ahead of a report we’re expecting to show 185,000 jobs created in the month of January. We’re expecting the unemployment rate to be at 3.6%. The numbers are imminent. Markets right now negative. Let’s see how these markets trade as the numbers come out and we check wages. Sharon pisani dow industrials now down to 50. What can you tell us?

CHERYL CASONE: All right. 517,000 jobs were added.

MARIA BARTIROMO: WOW!

CHERYL CASONE: 517,000 jobs were added. We’re looking at an incredible amount right now.

MARIA BARTIROMO: Blockbuster!

CHERYL CASONE: Yeah. All right. That’s a blockbuster number… Let me go through the numbers right now. Okay. The jobless rate coming in at 3.4%. So the jobless rate is coming in weaker than expected. The estimate was for 3.6%. The rate coming in at 3.4%. But again, I got to go back to that nonfarm number. Holy cow! 517,000 jobs out of the estimate was 185,000. Labor force participation rate, 62.4, which is a little bit better than we saw the month before.

Charles Payne expressed concern despite the strong report, but even he was mystified by the market reaction, and the rest of the panel tried to find reasons for caution, but here’s a sampling of their reactions to the numbers:

• CHARLES PAYNE: I’m really shocked that we had the down initial down 250-260 Dow points and we’ve come back 100 points. Something is in this report that stopping a complete sell off at the moment. I haven’t found it yet, though.
• MARIA BARTIROMO: Stephanie, your reaction?
• STEPHANIE POMBOY: Well, I guess gobsmacked.
• STEPHANIE POMBOY: I’m sort of speechless, I guess.
• BECKY FRANKIEWICZ: I’d say first amazing blockbuster report shows the American worker is still firmly in the driver’s seat when it comes to our labor force and economy.

Watch above via Fox Business Network’s Mornings With Maria.