US job growth rose more than expected in February, which could ease fears of an abrupt slowdown in economic growth and keep the Federal Reserve on track in reducing its monetary stimulus.
Employers added 175,000 jobs to their payrolls last month after creating 129,000 new positions in January, the Labor Department said on Friday. The unemployment rate, however, rose to 6.7 percent from a five-year low of 6.6 percent.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected nonfarm payrolls to rise 149,000 and the unemployment rate to hold steady at 6.6 percent.
Unseasonably cold and snowy winter weather has disrupted economic activity. Snow and ice covered densely populated areas during the week employers were surveyed for February payrolls.
The length of the average work week in February fell to its lowest level since January 2011.
The smaller survey of households from which the jobless rate is derived showed 601,000 people with jobs stayed at home because of the bad weather. The was the highest reading for the month of February since 2010.
Fed officials, including Chair Janet Yellen, have viewed the recent weakness in payrolls, which has been replicated in data such as retail sales, industrial production and home building, as largely weather-related and temporary.
On Thursday, New York Fed President William Dudley reiterated that the economic outlook would have to change significantly for the US central bank to wind down its monthly bond purchases in a series of measured steps this year.
Most economists expect the Fed will announce further cuts in its stimulus at its next meeting on March 18-19.