Business hiring roared in January: 304,000 jobs

The longest job-creation streak on record continues despite the recent government shutdown.

Businesses created 304,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department said on Friday. The figures blew away expectations of many economists who had predicted about 165,000 jobs would be added in the first month of the year.

The unemployment rate rose slightly, to 4 percent from 3.9 percent, nudged up by the 35-day partial government shutdown that ended last month.

Wage growth accelerated, with average hourly earnings rising 3.2 percent from the year before, and 3.4 percent for non-managers. This is the fastest rate of wage increases in nearly a decade.

However, figures for the two prior months were revised downward to show 70,000 fewer jobs created than the total 490,000 initially estimated for November and December.