US buoyed by strong figures on jobs

US stock index futures were buoyed by upbeat news about the jobs market yesterday.

Some 162,000 Americans were hired in March, while January's decline on payrolls was revised to a small gain, and the fall in February was also trimmed. Analysts say that the figures ease fears of a "jobs-lite" recovery, though the overall unemployment rate is unchanged at 9.7 per cent, as more people entered the labour market, itself an encouraging sign.