Washington DC - 10 March 2017

1. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer enters

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary:

"Obviously, we're very pleased to see the jobs report that came out this morning. It's great news for American workers. During the first full month of the Trump presidency, the economy added 235-thousand new jobs and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.7 percent. Notably, we also saw significant growth in the construction, manufacturing and mining sectors. The unemployment rate ticked down and the labour-force participation rate ticked up, showing even as more people are re-entering the job market due to the economic optimism that I spoke about, businesses are continuing to grow and create new jobs."

3. Wide of briefing

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary:

"The president looks forward to continuing his work with the private sector to clear roadblocks to key infrastructure projects, withdraw from job-killing trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and slash the bureaucratic red tape that makes additional hiring difficult for American businesses."

5. Wide of briefing

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary:

(Reporter (English): "My question to you, how much do you feel that President Trump should be credited for that? And how would you charactarise the economy that President Trump was handed over by President Obama?")

Spicer: "Well, look, numbers are going to go up and down, we recognise that. But I think there's no question when you look at the CEOs that hire people and the CEOs who have talked about the investment that they want to make in America, I, you know, you can look back over the last several administrations. I don't believe I've ever seen the number of CEOs and businesses come out and talk about investments and continuing investments and the expansion of investments or hiring based on the vision and agenda of an administration the way they have on this one."

7. Wide of briefing

The White House was quick to boast about the latest jobs report out on Friday.

Unemployment ticked down to 4.7 percent in February, and US. employers added a robust 235,000 jobs last month.

President Donald Trump - who, during the campaign, called the unemployment rate a "hoax" - today quickly retweeted a news report about the February jobs report, which covers his first full month in office.