The latest figures from the US Department of Labor and the Commerce Department give rise to optimism for the recovery of the US economy.
The Labor Department has reported an increase of 233,000 private sector jobs last month, while the unemployment rate remained at 8.3 percent, its lowest level in nearly three years.
The number of new jobs being created has been consistently above 200,000 in each of the past three months, fuelling hopes that the US recovery is gathering pace.
"We've had 24 straight months of private sector job growth, adding more than 3.9 million jobs to an economy that was bleeding almost 800,000 jobs in a single month when President Obama took office,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “US job growth over the last six months has been the strongest since before the recession began in 2006.”
February's job growth was spread across a range of industries, including 82,000 new jobs in professional and business services, 61,000 in healthcare and social assistance, 44,000 in leisure and hospitality, and 31,000 in manufacturing.
The manufacturing sector lost more than 2 million jobs through the recession, but has added back 429,000 positions in the last two years, with automakers taking on new workers after production was disrupted early last year following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
One area of continued concern, however, is the construction industry, which lost 13,000 jobs in February.
In a separate announcement today the US Department of Commerce released data showing that jobs supported by US exports increased by 1.2 million between 2009 and 2011.
On the second anniversary of the National Export Initiative (NEI), the figures showed that exports supported approximately 9.7 million jobs in 2011 and the value of US exports of goods and services exceeded $2.1 trillion for the first time in US history.
