US unemployment steady at 3.8pc

Washington: US job creation came back to life in March, with a hiring surge in healthcare, bars and restaurants, while unemployment held steady and worker wages continued to climb, government data showed on Friday.

The return to healthy job creation at the close of the third quarter should draw a sigh of relief from the White House after February´s anemic result when employers added just 20,000 net new positions, which had been the slowest in 17 months.

The world´s largest economy added 196,000 net new positions for the month, well above expectations, while the jobless rate held steady at 3.8 percent, according to the Labor Department. The broad consensus among economists is that the United States economy is slowing as the boost from recent tax cuts and fiscal stimulus fades. But President Donald Trump´s administration has forecast that 2019 will be another banner year for growth.