US Economy Defies Arctic Weather with Robust Job Creation

The US created 175,000 jobs in February as the world's largest economy shook off winter storms.

The figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are good news for President Obama and Chair of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen because they bettered market expectations.

Employment most notably increased in professional and business services and in wholesale trade, but declined in information.

The BLS also revealed that the number of unemployed persons (10.5 million) had barely changed over the period. The jobless rate has shown little movement since December.

Unemployment saw a slight jump to a rate of 6.7%, compared to 6.6% in January.

"Climbing unemployment shouldn't ring alarm bells for the prospect of a US led global recovery this year," said Nancy Curtin, chief investment officer of Close Brothers Asset Management.

"The arctic weather the US experienced has taken its toll on the ability of firms to generate new jobs, as well as worker productivity, with roads brought to a stand-still by the snow.

"This in turn is likely to feed through into the first quarter's GDP."

The research body also found that over the year, the number of unemployed persons and the unemployment rate were down by 1.6 million and 1%, respectively.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 203,000 in February to 3.8 million.

The BLS said these individuals accounted for 37% of the unemployed.

But the number of long-term unemployed was down by 901,000 over the year.