USA - jobless numbers fall again. Employers added 227,000 jobs to their payrolls last month.

Published on Mar 9, 2012 by Euronews

http://www.euronews.com/ The number Americans in work rose again in February for the third straight month of solid US employment growth.

The latest jobs figures are another sign that the recovery in the world's biggest economy is broadening.

They make it less likely that the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, will feel the need for further monetary stimulus.

Employers added 227,000 jobs to their payrolls last month.

The US Labor Department said the unemployment rate held at a three-year low of 8.3 percent, the same as January, even as more people returned to the labour force.

The numbers provide some good news for President Barack Obama in an election year and economists predict the jobless rate could fall below eight percent by November when Americans go to the polls with the economy as the top issue.

Although the job market is picking up, the pace of improvement remains too slow to do much to absorb the 23.5 million Americans who are either out of work or underemployed.

The US economy faces persistent long-term unemployment. In February, about 43 percent of the
12.8 million unemployed Americans had been out of work for more than six months.