Mubasher: The US Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) on Friday reported that total payroll employment saw a little change in February.

The 311,000 jobs added in the US economy in January remained almost stable in February.

While hiring in professional and business services, health care and wholesale trade continued to rise in February, construction employment shrank.

Job gains in the professional and business services amounted to 42,000 month-on-month.

Health care segment gained 21,000 jobs, while the number of added jobs in the wholesale businesses totalled 11,000.

Unemployment rate edged down to 3.8% last February, while the number of jobless people increased to 6.2 million.

This comprises the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, which declined by 225,000.

“This decline reflects, in part, the return of federal workers who were furloughed in January due to the partial government shutdown,” the BLS said.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls declined to 34.4 hours during the month.

In addition, average hourly earnings edged up $0.11 to $27.66, with a year-on-year rise of 3.4%.

By 1:57 pm GMT, the US dollar index fell 0.30% to 97.3770.