Recent US job growth not a fluke: White House aide

Private economists have gone overboard in attributing some of the US job market's recent strength to good weather and quirks in government data, a senior White House economist said on Tuesday. Wall Street analysts have pointed to a mild winter in the United States and potential seasonal adjustment problems in the data as playing a significant role in driving down the unemployment rate since last summer.
But Alan Krueger, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said there was more evidence that a broad-based economic recovery was taking hold. He noted that parts of the country that are normally less affected by cold weather saw similar drops in the unemployment rate as did the nation as a whole. The US unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent in February from 9.1 percent in August.