02.02.201808:39:00UTC+00U.S. Employment Jumps More Than Expected In January

Employment in the U.S. jumped by more than anticipated in the month of January, according to a closely watched report released by the Labor Department on Friday.

The report said non-farm payroll employment surged up by 200,000 jobs in January after climbing by an upwardly revised 160,000 jobs in December.

Economists had expected employment to increase by about 180,000 jobs compared to the addition of 148,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The Labor Department said the unemployment rate came in at 4.1 percent in January, unchanged from the three previous months and in line with economist estimates.

Meanwhile, the annual rate of growth in average hourly employee earnings accelerated to 2.9 percent in January from 2.5 percent in December.