US economy added a whopping 272,000 jobs in May

US job growth shot much higher than expected in May, jumping to 272,000, while the nation’s jobless rate rose slightly and broke a 27-month streak of below-4% unemployment.

At a time when Americans and the Federal Reserve are clamoring for clear-cut data about the state and trajectory of the economy, Friday’s jobs report was much more opaque than everyone had hoped.

“It’s hard not to like a lot of jobs, and this report was well above what I expected, and I think just about what everyone expected,” Dean Baker, an economist who co-founded the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told CNN. “We’re seeing a lot of job growth, that’s a generally good story.”