WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in February, pushing the labor market closer to full employment, but rising geopolitical tensions could hurt business confidence and slow job growth in the months ahead.
The Labor Department reported 678,000 nonfarm payrolls last month after 481,000 (revised from 467,000) in January.
The Reuters consensus for February gave a figure of 400,000 and estimates by economists and analysts ranged between 200,000 job cuts and 730,000 job creations.
The unemployment rate, calculated on the basis of a separate survey, fell to 3.8% after 4.0% in January while the consensus gave it at 3.9%. (Report Lucia Mutikani, French version Laetitia Volga, edited by Blandine Hénault)