Nonfarm payrolls rose by 2oo,000 in January while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Economists had expected nonfarm payrolls to grow by 180,000.

The better than expected jobs figures suggest the economy continued to expand in January. Average hourly earnings grew by 0.3 percent for the month, putting wages on pace for an annualized gain of 2.9 percent.