The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics delivered a message this week that sharply contradicts soft-landing skeptics: The labor market remains resilient. Although several private sources had suggested that the jobs situation was deteriorating, the delayed official figures told a very different story. January payrolls rose by 130,000 — roughly double consensus expectations. The unemployment rate edged lower. The labor force participation rate rose. And average hourly earnings increased 3.7% from a year earlier. Each one of the above factors would have marked a strong jobs market. Their coincidence just reinforces the ... (full story)