Hotel Reservations New Orleans - Payrolls Rise as U.S. Jobless Rate Reaches Four-Year Low

Source - http://www.bloomberg.com/
By - Alex Kowalski
Category - Hotel Reservations New Orleans
Posted By - Homewood Suites New Orleans

Hotel Reservations New Orleans

Job growth surged last month as automakers, builders and retailers pushed the unemployment rate to a four-year low, defying concerns that budget battles in Washington would harm the economic expansion.

Employment rose 236,000 last month after a revised 119,000 gain in January that was smaller than first estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 90 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected an advance of 165,000. The jobless rate dropped to 7.7 percent, the lowest since December 2008, from 7.9 percent.

“It really should cause people to rethink their weak first-half growth estimates,” said Drew Matus, deputy U.S. chief economist at UBS Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, who correctly forecast the unemployment rate. “People counted out the U.S. consumer a little too easily on the payroll-tax increases.”

Stocks, the dollar and Treasury yields all rose on signs the world’s largest economy is gaining strength in the face of federal budget cuts and higher payroll taxes. The report may fuel debate among Federal Reserve policy makers considering how long to maintain record stimulus to boost growth and employment.

Matus said the report is likely to convince Fed policy makers “that they’re doing exactly the right thing by stimulating the economy.”

Stocks, Treasuries
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.5 percent to 1,551.18 at the close in New York. Treasuries declined, pushing up the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.04 percent from 2 percent late yesterday. The dollar extended gains versus the yen to the highest level since 2009.
Hiring in construction jumped by the most in almost six years. Payrolls also climbed at retailers and professional and business services such as temporary-help firms.
An improving labor market has enhanced the job prospects of college seniors, who are now searching for post-graduation employment. Most of those on track to graduate from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta have job offers two months before May, when they leave, said Jasmine Lawrence, 21, a computer science major who has been hired by Microsoft Corp., where she had an internship last summer.

“It is a great time for engineers right now,” said Lawrence, who said she had four offers, including one from Google Inc. and Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. “Lots of companies want to hire tech students.”

Private Payrolls
Private payrolls, which don’t include jobs at government agencies, rose by 246,000 in February after a revised gain of 140,000 the previous month. Economists forecast they would grow 170,000 following an initially reported 166,000 gain in January.

As the U.S. economy gains momentum, Europe’s is contending with a debt crisis that is weighing on company spending and investment. Germany industrial production unexpectedly stagnated in January, a report today showed.

In China, exports exceeded forecasts in February, an indication that improving global demand may help to sustain the rebound in the world’s second-biggest economy.

Projections for U.S. payrolls ranged from gains of 121,000 to 260,000 following an initially reported 157,000 increase in January, according to the Bloomberg survey. Revisions subtracted a total of 15,000 jobs to the employment count in December and January.

The unemployment rate, derived from a separate survey of households, was forecast to hold at 7.9 percent, according to the Bloomberg survey median. The decline reflected both a gain in employment and an increase in people leaving the labor force.

Fed Stance
Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, said the increase in employment won’t prompt the Fed to alter its stimulus measures.

“They are going to look at the participation rate, they are going to look at work rate, they are going to look at productivity -- those things in combination,” Gross, the founder of Pacific Investment Management Co., said in a radio interview on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene.