Investing.com – The U.S labor market showed signs of strength with the economy creating more jobs than expected in February and the jobless rate remaining at an 8-year low, according to official data released on Friday.
Non-farm payrolls increased by 242,000 jobs in February, compared to the rise of 172,000 in January that was revised from the initial reading of 151,000.
The jobless rate remained at 4.9%, its lowest level since February 2008.
Analysts had forecast employment to increase by 190,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to remain stable at 4.9%.
Additionally, the private sector created a large portion of the new job contracts with a total of 230,000, blowing past consensus expectations of 185,000.
The 12,000 gain in government payrolls was in sharp contrast to the destruction of 10,000 public jobs that occurred in January.
On a negative note, average hourly earnings unexpectedly decreased month-on-month by 0.1%, compared the prior gain of 0.5% and coming below the analyst estimate of a 0.2% increase.
Furthermore, the average weekly hours also decreased slightly to 34.4, while the consensus had expected them to remain stable at 34.6.
U.S. futures showed little reaction and maintained slight gains and, at 13:38GMT or 7:38AM ET, the blue-chip Dow futures inched up 0.18%, S&P 500 futures added 0.16% and the Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.28%.
The dollar moved higher after the release, with the U.S. Dollar Index trading at 97.92, compared to 97.59 earlier. EUR/USD traded at 1.0923, from 1.0971 before the release, USD/JPY traded at 113.98, from 113.77, and GBP/USD was at 1.4116, compared to the previous 1.4148.