by Lucia Mutikani
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy added far more jobs than expected in January, illustrating the resilience of the U.S. labor market, but further moderation in wage growth could reassure the Federal Reserve on the effectiveness of its fight against inflation.
The Labor Department reported on Friday 517,000 non-farm payrolls created last month and further revised the December figure upwards to 260,000 from 223,000 originally announced.
Economists polled by Reuters predicted an average of 185,000 job creations in January, with estimates ranging between 125,000 and 305,000.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.3%, after rising 0.4% (revised) in December, bringing its year-on-year increase to 4.4%, from 4.9% in December and 4, 3% expected by the Reuters consensus.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.4% in January from 3.5% the previous month.
(Lucia Mutikani, French version Laetitia Volga)
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