NPR This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darren Woods and I'm Patty Hirsch and today it's

Jobs Friday. I always wanted to do that. I've been working at this company for years I've never been able to do that but at last I'm able to toot that horn

Yes, and a particularly good month to be doing it in fact a great month to be tooting the air horn. The economy added more than 350,000 jobs in January

according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And that is great news.

That is great news for all those people getting jobs, but maybe not such great news for the Federal

Reserve, which as we heard earlier this week, is still holding interest rates up there at 5.5% to 5.5%.

It's not like it wants to keep rates that high. Of course it wants to take the heat

out of the economy and of course that includes the job market in order to keep a lid on in inflation.

But there are a few things getting in the Fed's way here when it comes down to slowing hiring.

And one of them is a pretty unexpected factor.

State and local governments, they have been hiring like crazy.

Well, at least as crazy as municipalities can get anyway.

So on today's show, we'll look at why state and local government

has been such a surprise boost to the labour market

and why that might not be such a great indicator for the wider economy.

That's coming up after the break. This message comes from NPR sponsor SAP Concur.

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