A winter break: 295,000 more jobs in Feb.

The economy added 295,000 new jobs in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, blasting past economists' expectations of 240,000 new jobs.

The unemployment rate fell to 5.5% from 5.7% in January, the lowest since May 2008, when the rate was 5.4%.

Businesses added jobs in food services and drinking places, professional and business services, construction, health care, and in transportation and warehousing. Government payrolls rose only by 7,000, and jobs in the mining industry fell.

The BLS revised January's job gains to 239,000 from 257,000 and left December's 329,000 estimate unchanged, for a total downward revision of 18,000. Job gains have averaged 288,000 a month the past three months. Nevertheless, February was the fourth-best month for jobs since January 2014.

Wages, monitored closely by the Federal Reserve, rose a modest 2% the past 12 months.

The civilian labor force participation rate, at 62.8% was little changed in February. It has remained within a narrow range of 62.7 to 62.9 percent since April 2014. It was generally above 66% in the decade before the last recession started in 2007.

The unemployment rate peaked at 10% in October 2009 in the wake of the financial crisis. On Wednesday, the BLS reported that the jobless rate fell in all 50 states in 2014.

The strong number puts increased pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist for Capital Economics, said in a note to clients this morning. The 5.5% unemployment rate is at the top of the Fed's so-called natural unemployment rate -- the normal rate of unemployment in an expanding economy.

Nevertheless, the Fed has some reason to be cautious, chief of which is the persistently low labor participation rate. In addition, manufacturing hiring slowed markedly, gaining just 8,000 jobs in February, vs. a monthly average of 18,000 in 2014.

Oil and gas "extraction" jobs were down 1,100 in Feb. and 1,800 the month before, thanks to plummeting oil prices. This category has dropped in five of the past 12 months, and January and February marked the category's biggest two-month decline since the late recession months in 2009.

Markets had mixed reaction to the news. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.18% from 2.12% Thursday, signs that the bond market is staring to fret about inflation and a Fed rate hike. Futures on the Standard and Poor's 500 stock index were off 0.22%, according to FactSet.