Snow joke: US jobs data beats forecasts despite adverse weather

The US economy added 175,000 jobs in February, ahead of estimates and confounding fears that continued bad weather would hurt the employment recovery.

Economists had forecast the creation of 149,000 new jobs in February, with some claiming that adverse weather conditions have had a negative effect on business activity in the country. It follows two months of disappointing figures: January, for example, saw 113,000 jobs added, well below the 180,000 that had been forecast. Both January and December's figures were attributed to bad weather. The January figure and December's 75k gain were revised higher by a total of 25,000 in today's report. But the unemployment rate for February has also ticked up, rising 0.1pp to 6.7%, despite an...