The Labor Department's closely watched nonfarm payrolls report, out Friday, showed that 353,000 jobs were added last month - that's nearly double what economists polled by Reuters had predicted. Job gains from the prior two months were also revised upward.
Average hourly earnings in January also surpassed expectations, ticking up from the prior month as well as from one year ago.
The unemployment rate remained steady at 3.7%.
The strong job numbers come despite aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve to tame still-sticky inflation, which some economists and market experts feared would push the economy into a recession.
But so far the economy appears to have shrugged off that prediction.
Strong demand and worker productivity have likely encouraged businesses to hire and retain more employees - which has powered robust consumer spending.
And while wage gains are good for consumers, they remain too high for the Fed as it looks to bring the annual inflation rate down from the current 3% range to its target rate of 2%.
The Fed left interest rates unchanged after its two-day policy meeting this week - with market predictions that it would start lowering rates as soon as March pushed to May or later.
