Feb jobless rate down at 5.5%, lowest in 7 years

Washington

EMPLOYERS added more jobs than forecast in February and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.5 per cent, the lowest in almost seven years, showing the labour market is sustaining progress after the best performance since 1999.

The 295,000 advance in payrolls last month followed a 239,000 January increase that was smaller than previously reported, figures from the Labor Department showed on Friday.

The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 235,000 increase.…