Washington DC - Employment in the US grew by 162,000 jobs in August, strongly outperforming analysts' expectations, and the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1%, government data showed on Friday.

Employment expanded in the restaurant and bar sectors, and jobs in public schools bounced back from a contraction a month earlier, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said in a statement.

The strong report also revised up job numbers for June and July by a combined 55,000, indicating the US labor market's growth remains steady.

The new data will be a boon for President Donald Trump, whose Republican Party faces a stern test from Democrats in upcoming midterm elections in November, with the state of the world's largest economy a key issue for voters.

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Restaurants and bars added 59,000 jobs, well above the average gain of 12,000 over the last year, the BLS said.

Employment in the local government education sector – which is mostly made up of public schools – increased by 42,000, largely offsetting a decrease from the previous month due to summer holidays. Overall employment in the sector has shown little net change since January.

The health care sector, one of the major drivers of job growth in the United States as the population ages, added 13,000 jobs, a slower expansion than its average over the last year.

Construction and manufacturing also made gains in the month, the data showed.

The information technology sector, however, lost 23,000 jobs, with cuts in computing infrastructure, data processing and web hosting. Job losses in the sector have averaged around 8,000 per month for the last year, according to BLS data.

Average hourly earnings increased by 3.1% year-over-year, still lagging behind inflation – indicating that many workers are seeing their salaries contract in real terms.