US jobs growth slowed in January, according to the latest official figures, but the rate of unemployment declined.
Employers created 143,000 jobs last month, compared with analyst’s forecasts of about 170,000.
However, December’s jobs figure was revised up to 307,000.
A resilient jobs market underpinning economic expansion has given the US Federal Reserve space to pause interest rate cuts while policymakers assess the impact of Donald Trump’s fiscal, trade and immigration policies, which some economists view as inflationary.
The unemployment rate dipped to 4% in January from 4.1% the month before.
Although there were widespread wildfires in southern California last month, and there was severe winter weather in much of the rest of the US, this did not affect employment, hours and earnings, or the unemployment rate, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
