Various data was supporting a strong jobs number for this Friday, and the Labor Department confirmed an even stronger jobs number than what TrimTabs and ADP had prepared the markets for. Nonfarm payrolls rose by a seasonally adjusted 288,000 in the month of April, and the official unemployment rate fell to 6.3%.

Bloomberg was calling for estimates to be 6.6% on unemployment and 215,000 on nonfarm payrolls. This marked the best month of job creation since January of 2012.

Another boost was that the weaker numbers from March and April were both revised higher as well, to 203,000 from 192,000 in March and to 222,000 from 197,000 in February.

One key metric will stand out that does not fly as strongly as the headline data suggests — the key labor force participation rate fell to 62.8% in April from 63.2% in March.

This official unemployment rate is the lowest going back to September of 2008. Private sector payrolls added 273,000 jobs in April, much higher than the 213,000 consensus from Bloomberg.

Data showed that professional and business services posted the best gains of industries with 75,000 jobs. Temporary services grew by 24,000. Some 35,000 were added by the retail sector, and construction added 32,000. Health care added 19,000 jobs.

S&P 500 futures were up 6.50 and DJIA futures were up 48 shortly after the report.

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