The jobs figures, from the US Labor¹ Department, were better than many had been expecting and marked a rebound² from two weak months.

 

It had been thought the figures would be affected³ by recent harsh weather, which had hit much of the country.

 

But the unemployment rate, based on different statistics, went up slightly from January's 6.6% to 6.7%.

 

 

February's jobs figure, known as non-farm payrolls⁵ and based on a survey of employers, compares with the 129,000 new jobs created in January.

 

Analysts⁶ had been expecting a rise of about 150,000 last month.

 

"It is stronger than expected on several fronts," said Camilla Sutton, from Scotia Capital. 

 

"That these numbers came even while weather was bad shows the underlying strength of the US economy."

 

A large chunk⁷ of the gains came from financial and other services, which were responsible for an extra 79,000 jobs.

 

Construction companies, many of which had been affected by the bad weather, added 15,000 jobs.

 

But the information sector⁸ lost 16,000 jobs, most of them in film and sound recording⁹.

 

Average hourly earnings¹⁰ in the private sector rose by 3.7%, or about nine cents, to $24.31, the figures show. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.2%.

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