US employment grew for the first time in seven months as the jobless rate fell for a second straight month, the government said today.
The US Labor Department said the jobless rate declined to 5.5 per cent in February from 5.6 per cent in the previous month.
That drop came as a rise in retail employment, boosted by seasonal forces, helped add 66,000 jobs to payrolls outside the farm sector - the first addition to payrolls since a mild 18,000 gain during July of last year. February's gains followed job losses of 126,000 in January.
The report adds to expectations the Federal Reserve will shift its stance on the balance of risks in the US economy at its March 19th meeting to signal that it may start to increase interest rates as early as the middle of the year.
But with the recovery in its early stages, the central bank will be wary of choking off the recovery too early, especially until the job market has returned to full strength.
The US economy has shed more than 1.4 million jobs since the recession began a year ago. Highlighting how badly the economy was hammered by the September 11th attacks, 1.2 million of those job losses came between September and January.