United States Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will probably take two lessons from better-than-forecast job growth: His record easing is working and the Fed should press on with its $85 billion monthly bond purchases.

Employment in the US rose 236,000 in February for the third monthly increase above 200,000 in four months, pushing down the jobless rate to a four-year low of 7.7 percent, according to Labor Department data.

"This is what proponents for QE were almost hoping for," said Joseph Gagnon, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, referring to bond buying known as quantitative easing. "This is very close to what they were expecting and consistent with sticking with QE for the whole year," said Gagnon, a former associate director at the Fed's division of international finance.