US economy keeps producing jobs

The US economy created 211,000 jobs in March as the unemployment rate dropped to 4.7%, the Labor Department said.

The rate at which employers added jobs surprised analysts, who had forecast 190,000 new posts.

However, the Labor Department revised down the number of jobs created in January and February by 34,000.

March wage growth was below forecasts at 0.2%, but fears remain that current high levels of employment could boost consumption levels and raise inflation.

Hiring and firing

The markets are also worried that current hiring levels could lead to inflationary pay rises, which might then encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in an effort to contain them.

"I think the Fed wants the unemployment rate to stop going down pretty much immediately, and if it doesn't the Fed will keep tightening," said economist Jim O'Sullivan of UBS Securities in Greenwich, Connecticut.

The Fed has raised its key short-term interest rate 15 times since mid-2004, and many analysts believe the current rate of 4.75% marks the latter stages of its rate-rising cycle.

Not all industry sectors created jobs in March.

Manufacturing employment fell by 5,000 after a 10,000 drop in February, while transportation firms shed 7,600 posts.

Service sector businesses led the hiring, recruiting 202,000 new staff in March, following on from the 194,000 in February.