Jobs reports simply don't get any better than the one we received this morning.

• No caveats needed: This is a rip-roaring labor market, in stark defiance of months of recession chatter — and the Federal Reserve's efforts to slow things down.

Why it matters: American workers — outside of a handful of sectors — are experiencing some of the most plentiful opportunities in generations — even as inflation has been coming down.

• That is a precarious balance (more on how the Fed might react below), but it is a remarkable state of affairs. The jobless recoveries of the early 2000s now look like ancient history.

The details: Economists expected jobs growth to decelerate, but instead it surged ahead, with an addition of more than half a million jobs (517,000) in January.

• The unemployment rate hit an ultra-low 3.4%. To find a water mark lower than that, you'd have to go all the way back to 1953.

State of play: The blowout job gains may be exaggerated by seasonal adjustments or other statistical quirks. But even if they are ultimately revised lower, a consistent message is being sent by labor data across the board with ultra-low jobless claims and rising numbers of job openings.

• The hiring slowdown that was supposed to come alongside the Fed's aggressive tightening has not materialized. It sets up something of a conundrum for officials.
• "It's difficult to see how wage pressures can possibly soften sufficiently when jobs growth is as strong as this," Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Global Investors, wrote in a note.
• "It's even more difficult to see the Fed stop raising rates and entertain ideas of rate cuts when there is such explosive economic news coming in."

Yes, but: For now, wage pressures appear to be flat or diminishing, contrary to what economic theory would predict in a booming job market. Rock-bottom unemployment paired with decelerating inflation is an economic dream scenario.

• Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% in January, slowing slightly from December's upwardly revised 0.4% pace. Over the year through January, hourly earnings are up 4.4%.
• Over the last three months, wages rose at a 4.6% annual rate — on the high side of what the Fed would consider consistent with achieving its 2% inflation target, but not accelerating.

The intrigue: January is a notoriously difficult month to interpret jobs data, with annual adjustments made by the Labor Department — some of which are done to account for seasonal patterns.

• "We got a lot of these gains because employers kept on seasonal workers they would typically lay off," says Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG U.S. "This is a lot of labor hoarding, everywhere from leisure and hospitality to retail to construction."

Just two days ago, Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged that a "disinflationary process" was underway, which markets seized on as reason to believe rates won't get hiked by as much as some previously thought.

• The jobs numbers reversed that perception, as traders and analysts assigned higher odds to continued rate hikes.

By the numbers: The yield on two-year Treasury securities was up a whopping 0.17 percentage points this morning, reflecting expectations that the central bank will push rates higher for longer than seemed likely before the jobs numbers.

• The odds the Fed will raise rates at its May policy meeting rose from 30% yesterday to 55%, according to calculations based on futures prices from the CME Group.

What to watch: On Tuesday, Powell will appear at the Economic Club of Washington, where he can tweak his messaging, and convey whether the jobs numbers shifted the policy outlook as much as markets imply.

• He is not scheduled to deliver prepared remarks at the event, but rather will be interviewed on stage. Powell is no stranger to using the Q&A format to signal a shifting policy stance, as Neil has seen firsthand.

The bottom line: The Fed often emphasizes the importance of not placing too much weight on any single data release. But this was a hard one to not take notice of.