The U.S. economy added 128,000 new jobs in August, lowering the nation's unemployment rate to 4.7 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The rise in jobs was slightly larger than the gain of 125,000 expected by economists for the month. The jobless rate was down from the five-month high of 4.8 percent in July.

Job gains for June and July turned out to be larger than initially estimated, according to the report. Employers had increased their payrolls by 134,000 jobs in June and by another 121,000 in July.

The report also showed that workers' average hourly earnings had inched up 0.1 percent to 16.79 dollars in August from the previous month. The gain in earnings defied economists' forecasts of a 0.3 percent increase.

Over the 12 months ending in August, wages had jumped by 3.9 percent, the biggest increase since June 2001.

The gain in new jobs and the decline in the unemployment rate in August may suggest that the economy still had power to expand, analysts said.

Source: Xinhua