Bullard Calls U.S. Job Growth ‘Encouraging’ Last Three Months

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said U.S. job growth in the past three months has been “an encouraging sign for the U.S. economy.”

Payroll growth averaging about 200,000 jobs a month has been “impressive” and supports his forecast for the economic expansion to accelerate to about 3 percent this year, Bullard said today in an interview in Washington.

U.S. employers added 157,000 jobs in January after a revised 196,000 advance in the prior month, the Labor Department reported today. The unemployment rate increased to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent.

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To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net