The US economy added jobs at a strong pace in February, which likely confirms that the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates for a longer period.
The closely monitored jobs report released Friday by the Labor Department showed nonfarm payrolls rose by 311,000 last month.
January data was revised downward to show an addition of 504,000 jobs instead of 517,000 in the previous reading, according to Reuters.
Economists polled by “Reuters” had expected jobs to rise to 205,000 and said the economy needed to create 100,000 jobs a month to keep pace with population growth in working age.
Job estimates for February ranged from 78 to 325,000 jobs.
Gold prices fell on Friday as investors await US nonfarm payrolls data, due for release today, to assess the possible path for raising interest rates at the US Central Bank.
At 3:34 GMT, spot gold was down 0.1%, at $1828.90 an ounce, and US gold futures were down 0.1%, at $1832.90 an ounce. according to Reuters.
Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, warned this week of a larger and possibly faster rate hike to control high inflation.
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