Economy, Budget Cuts | featured news

U.S. employers ramped up hiring in February, adding 236,000 jobs and pushing the unemployment rate down to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent in January. Stronger hiring shows businesses are confident about the economy, despite higher taxes and government spending cuts.

Germany and the European Commission on Tuesday called on EU nations to stick to their promised budget cuts despite mounting voter discontent, but promised some new efforts to boost growth to alleviate economic hardship.