The US economy added 242,000 jobs in February, spurred by growth in restaurants, retail and healthcare. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.9%.

The positive report – in excess of predictions by economists – caps 72 months of uninterrupted job gains, the longest streak on record. It comes as stock markets in the US and abroad have been rattled by fears of a global slowdown, sparked by worries that China’s economic boom is slowing.

On the downside Americans’ wages declined 0.1% from the prior month, putting the annual gain at just 2.2%

The report comes as Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton prepares to unveil her plans to spur jobs and wages growth in a speech in Detroit, still one of the most economically troubled cities in the country despite the widespread jobs recovery.

US businesses have now added 14.3m jobs over six straight years. The unemployment rate is half what it was at the height of the recession. In January the Labor Department announced the economy had added a disappointing 151,000 new jobs. December and January’s reports have now been revised with the Labor Department adding 30,000 jobs for the two months.

But while jobs growth was better than expected the major gains were in low wage industries. Average hourly earnings were down 3 cents to $25.35 after an increase of 12 cents in January.

Retail added 55,000 while manufacturing lost 16,000 after a strong gain of 23,000 jobs in January. The impact of low oil prices on the once booming energy industry. Mining and logging employment, which includes oil extraction, lost 18,000 jobs.

Unemployment rates remained far higher for minorities: black and Hispanic Americans were jobless at rates of 8.8% and 5.4%, compared to 4.3% for whites. The unemployment rate for the country overall was 4.5%. Those rates did not change during the month, nor did the number of long-term jobless: still 2.2 million people.

Payroll employment 2008-2016 Photograph: Bureau of Labor Statistics

The report comes as the Federal Reserve weighs whether to delay a further rise in interest rates. The recent rout on Wall Street, due in part to economic woes in China, has been a major factor in the Fed’s decision to hold off on a further increase, Fed chair Janet Yellen told Congress last month.

“With employment rising at a rapid pace and labour market slack still shrinking, we think the Fed will resume raising interest rates in June. A marked pick-up in wage growth is still notably absent, but that won’t matter to the Fed when there are clear signs of a rise in core price inflation,” said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics.

Economists were already predicting job growth for the month, but a Reuters survey of economists turned out to be slightly conservative: the anticipated increase of 190,000 jobs fell short of the mark.

