Jobs blowout: What the employment report means for Biden and Powell

The U.S. economy created 517,000 jobs in January, a surprisingly strong number that underscores the remarkable resilience of the labor market but could stiffen the Federal Reserve’s determination to squeeze the economy to fight 40-year-high inflation.

The unemployment rate fell to 3.4 percent, the lowest in more than a half-century, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The number blew by the Wall Street consensus of 190,000 jobs and suggests that the Fed’s efforts to cool down the labor market by hiking interest rates at the fastest pace in decades are not...