US economy adds 243,000 job in February

Yesterday's US jobs report was slightly better than expected. Reuters reports:

U.S. employers added a stronger-than-forecast 243,000 jobs in February but the unemployment rate edged up, the Labor Department said on Friday...

Average hourly earnings grew 0.3 percent during February, in line with expectations, but in the 12 months through February pay rose by 3.5 percent, which department officials said was the highest annual increase since September 2001.

The February job gain followed a revised 170,000 new jobs in January that was originally reported as 193,000...

The average workweek in February was 33.7 hours, down from 33.8 hours in January.

Yesterday also saw the Federal Statistical Office in Germany release February consumer prices -- up 0.4 percent over January and 2.1 percent over February 2005 -- February wholesale prices -- up 0.5 percent over January and 2.9 percent over February 2005 -- and January trade data -- exports up 3.3 percent over December and 13.3 percent over January 2005, imports up 3.0 percent and 18.7 percent respectively.

While these data point to a global economy that is still hot, one day after the Bank of Japan eased up on its easy money policy, the news from Japan was looking somewhat cooler, with private machinery orders excluding shipping and utilities falling a seasonally-adjusted 6.2 percent in January and household spending falling a seasonally-adjusted 1.9 percent.

And in China, producer price inflation continued to trend down in February. From Shanghai Daily:

The producer price index climbed 3 percent in February compared with the same month last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. That was the smallest growth rate since January 2004.