US jobless rate falls to 4.9pc

The US unemployment rate fell to an eight-year low of 4.9 percent but hiring slowed in January, fresh evidence of the US economy hitting a soft patch.

But there were enough signs of persistent strength in the Labor Department's January jobs data Friday to fend off the conclusion the global slowdown is dragging the US down with it.

The country's jobs machine generated just 151,000 net new positions last month, a sharp downshift from the average 271,000 new jobs over the previous two months.

Coming on the tail of a second very strong year for hiring -- 2.7 million new positions were generated in all of 2015 -- the one-month downturn did not by itself signal a new trend.

There were some signs of modest strength, with the unemployment rate hitting its lowest level since February 2008, at the beginning of the US recession.