The economy added 288,000 jobs in June, a better-than-expected number that helped push the unemployment rate down to 6.1 percent.
It's the lowest the unemployment rate had been since September 2008, the month Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, and the financial crisis that set off the recession began.
Stocks rose on the robust report, with the Dow Jones average topping 17,000 for the first time just after the markets opened.
The figures will have politicians wondering how the expanding economy might affect this year's midterm elections, where Republicans are now favored to take back the Senate, in part, due to dissatisfaction with President Obama, whose approval ratings are hovering just above 40 percent.
The strong number marks the fifth straight month of jobs growth above 200,000, bolstering hopes the economy has turned a corner.
The June report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics includes good news beyond its topline numbers as well.




Furman also called on Congress to pass a transportation bill. He said a failure to do so would jeopardize hundreds of thousands of jobs later this year.