US economy adds 295,000 jobs in February

The US economy added 295,000 jobs in February, while the unemployment rate fell to 5.5% from 5.7%, according to Labor Department figures.

It was the 12th month running that the economy added more than 200,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, data for the number of jobs created in December remained unchanged, but was revised downwards for January from 257,000 to 239,000.

There were job gains in a number of sectors including construction, health care, and transportation.

In addition, there were job gains in food and drinks outlets, professional and business services, and warehousing. However, employment in mining was down over the month.

In February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 3 cents to $24.78. And over the year, average hourly earnings were up by 2%.

The labour force participation rate also fell, to 62.8% from 62.9%, as more people entered the workforce.

Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of jobless people were down, by 1.2% and 1.7 million respectively.

'Extremely constructive'

The latest month of strong jobs growth is likely to raise expectations that the Federal Reserve will be looking at raising interest rates sooner rather than later.

Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank in Cleveland, Ohio, said: "Any sign of undue strength will raise the spectre of rates climbing sooner than expected, and we were already expecting rates to rise this year."

Meanwhile Tom Porcelli, chief US economist at RBS Capital Markets in New York, said: "It's been looking extremely constructive over the past few months, at the very least it probably gives some people pause for cutting down their GDP expectations this year.

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