WASHINGTON
The U.S. added 295,000 jobs in February driving the unemployment rate down to 5.5 percent, the Labor Department said Friday.
"Job gains occurred in food services and drinking places, professional and business services, construction, health care, and in transportation and warehousing," according to the government report.
The U.S. has now added an average of 266,000 jobs per month in the last 12 months, placing the unemployment rate at its lowest since May 2008, before the financial crisis hit the U.S. economy.
"We’ve now had 12 consecutive months of more than 200,000 private sector jobs being created. That is the longest streak of consecutive months of 200,000 or more jobs since 1977," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.
He also cited "19 straight months of positive job growth" in the manufacturing sector.
The civilian labor force participation rate, at 62.8 percent, changed little in February and has remained within a narrow range of 62.7 to 62.9 percent since April 2014, according to the report.
After revision, the change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December remained at 329,000, and 239,000 for January.
The revision brings the average three-month jobs gain to 288,000 for a total of 864,000 new jobs.
Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.
