good friday morning, i m jim sciutto. and i m bianna golodryga. opening ceremonies wrapped up kicking off the 2022 winter olympics in beijing. the zero covid policy forces a much scaled down version. a notable absence of diplomats from the u.s. and western allies all boycotting the games because of china s human rights record. in a show of solidarity between america s two rivals, vladimir putin met with china s xi jinping before the opening ceremonies, issuing a joint statement calling for interestingly a halt to nato expansion. of course that s one of russia s top security demands as it continues to threaten ukraine. and the breaking news we re following this hour, the u.s. economy added nearly half a million new jobs in january. that s a much stronger report than expected. cnn s chief business correspondent christine romans with more. and i got to tell you, i was talking to the white house yesterday, they were concerned about a negative report and this surprise is on
survey week for the government came when there were maybe 12 million people out sick or taking care of a sick relative or a kid out of school or quarantining and despite that disruption, you had an american job market that was powering ahead. the story here is that companies are hungry to hire workers. there aren t enough workers for all of the open jobs. when you look at the year, kate, really important to focus on the trend. 6.6 million jobs added in the first 12 months of the biden administration. and the make up of that job creation is changing a bit. that would, by the way, be the strongest first 12 months of any presidents back to the great depression, but the make up changed. it was much stronger at the end of the year than we thought. remember, there was a disappointing 199,000 jobs, net new jobs created in december. the government has revised that sharply higher to more than 500,000 jobs in december. in november, a paltry 249,000 jobs added back into the economy. it
Good faith. well, that s a note to end on this morning, jim. busy news week. we hope you have a good weekend. thank you so much for joining us today. i m jim sciutto. and i m bianna golodryga. at this hour with kate bolduan starts right now. hello, everyone, i m kate bal, after the january jobs report crushed expectations. the u.s. economy added 467,000 new jobs last month, far better than estimates and despite the omicron surge. the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 4%. joining me now is cnn chief business correspondent christine romans with a look at a deeper look at these jobs numbers as we re waiting to hear from the president. what s sticking out to you? this was a big surprise. i think it was even a big surprise for the white house. what sticks out to me is the