Good jobs report.

313,000 jobs added amid confidence in Trump’s tax cuts, global resiliency

The U.S. economy added 313,000 jobs in February, smashing analysts’ expectations.

WASHINGTON» U.S. employers went on a hiring binge in February, adding 313,000 jobs, amid rising business confidence lifted by the Trump administration’s tax cuts and a resilient global economy.

The surprisingly robust hiring, reported by the Labor Department on Friday, was the strongest in 1½ years.

It was accompanied by the biggest surge in 15 years in the number of people either working or looking for work. That kept the nation’s unemployment rate unchanged for a fifth straight month at 4.1 percent.

At the same time, average wage growth slowed to 2.6 percent in February from a year earlier. That was down from January’s revised pace of 2.8 percent, which had spooked investors because it raised fears of inflation.

The hiring boom caught many economists off guard, because they expected a smaller — though still healthy — increase. Job gains typically slow as the unemployment rate falls, because companies run out of workers to hire.

The economy has expanded for 104 straight months, or nearly nine years, the third-largest expansion on record, and hiring often declines as recessions fade further into the past.

Yet job growth has accelerated in recent months. Companies have added an average of 242,000 jobs a month over the past three months, above 2017’s pace of 182,000.

“The February employment report was unambiguously strong, confirming that the U.S. labor market is on fire,” said Michelle Girard, chief U.S. economist at NatWest Markets. “The pace of job growth is gaining momentum — a very impressive development at this stage of the economic cycle.”

The Trump administration’s tax cuts appear to have lifted optimism among consumers and businesses. U.S. employers also have benefited from a strengthened global economy. And consumers are more confident than they have been since 2000.

The proportion of adults working or looking for work jumped to 63 percent from 62.7 percent, still far below its pre-recession levels in 2007.

But the proportion of adults in their prime working years — defined as ages 25 to 54 — with jobs rose sharply to 79.3 percent, just a few tenths of a point below its pre-recession level.

Higher-paying, blue-collar industries reported some of the biggest increases. Construction firms added 61,000 jobs, a figure that may have been inflated by relatively warm weather last month. Manufacturing companies added a solid 31,000 jobs. Retailers added 50,000, the most in two years.