A January jobs report that crushed expectations means the Federal Reserve will almost certainly not enact its first quarter-point interest rate cut at its March meeting, experts say.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 353,000 in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday, easily topping economists' estimate for the creation of 185,000 jobs. Moreover, December's payrolls were revised to 333,000 from 216,000. To put those gains in context, the economy added an average of 255,000 jobs per month in 2023.
