Non-farm payroll employment increased by 97,000 in February following an upwardly revised increase of 146,000 in January.
Service-providing industries added 168,000 jobs in February following an increase of 120,000 jobs in January. The increase reflected job growth throughout much of the sector.
The Labor Department also said that the unemployment rate unexpectedly edged down to 4.5 percent in February from 4.6 percent in January. The decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.
The report also showed that average hourly earnings increased by $0.06 or 0.4 percent to $17.16 in February. This increase followed gains of $0.03 in January and $0.08 in December. Average hourly earnings were up 4.1 year-over-year.
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/TOP%20STORY/504947/
2007-03-10
13:19:05
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