The shifting composition of new jobs appeared to suppress wages in February. Traders assign just a 2 percent chance to a March rate hike, with December being the first month that has a more than 50 percent chance, according to the CME.

"Continued months of strong job growth should eventually translate into durable accelerations in wage growth, but it hasn't happened yet", said Josh Bivens, research and policy director at the Economic Policy Institute think tank. The Fed raised its key overnight interest rate in December for the first time in almost a decade. What's more, February was the 65th consecutive month of positive job growth - the best stretch since 1939 - and the 72nd consecutive month in which we've seen private-sector job growth, which is the longest on record. "But as far as the Fed is concerned, it is already seeing a clear acceleration in core price inflation".

Based on that rosy forecast, the Fed said it planned to raise rates four more times in 2016. The college-level unemployment rate was 2.5%, also the same as January. Average hourly earnings have risen by only 2.2 percent over the year, not enough to overcome inflation or increasing health care costs.

"Employment increased by 242,000 in February", the report detailed.

With labor market slack being absorbed, wage growth is expected to accelerate.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged at 2.2 million in January and accounted for 27.7% of the unemployed.

Despite the job growth, the unemployment rate held steady last month at an eight-year low of 4.9%. "The unemployment rate is declining for virtuous reasons".

Payrolls at factories declined by 16,000 after a 23,000 gain and construction companies added 19,000 workers. And employment in mining, a sector that includes the oil and gas industry, fell.

The Post's John Crudele predicted on Thursday that the February jobs number would come in above the 195,000 total Wall Street was predicting because of the generous seasonal adjustments the Labor Department sprinkled into its survey. In January the Labor Department announced the economy had added a disappointing 151,000 new jobs.

The jobs report confirmed expectations by the Federal Reserve that the United States economy continues to push ahead modestly, shrugging off China's slowdown and weak growth in Europe.

The February numbers are encouraging in this sense: In December, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said that the USA economy needs to add 100,000 jobs a month in order to absorb new entrants to the workforce. Leisure and hospitality jobs rose 48,000, with employment at restaurants and bars increasing by 40,200.