Washington

US JOB growth rebounded last month and the unemployment rate dropped to a near seven-year low of 5.4 per cent, signs of a pick-up in economic momentum that could keep the Federal Reserve on track to hike interest rates this year.

Non-farm payrolls increased 223,000 as gains in services sector jobs offset weakness in mining, the Labor Department said on Friday. The one-tenth of a percentage point decline in the unemployment rate to its lowest level since May 2008 came even as more people piled into the labour market.