The economy continued to gain jobs last month, with another 227,000 added in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, although the unemployment rate remained unchanged from January, at 8.3 percent.

Staffing levels in accounting and finance are anticipated to stay fairly steady in the second quarter, according to a survey of CFOs by staffing company Robert Half International.

Employment in the private sector rose by 216,000 from January to February on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the monthly national employment report from payroll giant ADP.

Small businesses continued to create jobs in February, particularly in hard-hit states, but the pace of job creation is slowing down.

Hiring was up slightly, by 0.04 percent, but paycheck size declined slightly by 0.2 percent, from January to February, according to payroll provider SurePayroll.

With concerns mounting over the upcoming Presidential election and the Eurozone crisis, CFOs are tempering their optimism about economic growth and relying more on temporary employees in their hiring plans.

The Internal Revenue Service released a revised Form 941 on Thursday to allow employers to properly report the newly extended payroll tax cut, which has now been extended through the end of the year.

President Obama has signed into law an extension through the end of the year of the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits, and the so-called “doc fix” to prevent Medicare physician reimbursement rates from plunging.

Congress passed legislation Friday extending the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits, and the “doc fix” for Medicare physician reimbursements through the remainder of the year.

House and Senate negotiators have released a conference committee report spelling out several of the provisions of the payroll tax cut extension legislation, which also extends unemployment benefits and the “doc fix” for Medicare reimbursements for physicians.

Lawmakers negotiating over the payroll tax cut extension said they have agreed on a deal to extend the 2 percentage point cut in Social Security and Medicare withholding taxes through the rest of the year, along with unemployment benefits and the “doc fix” to prevent Medicare reimbursements to physicians from being cut.

U.S. lawmakers reached a tentative deal on Tuesday on legislation aimed at boosting the economy by extending a payroll tax cut for 160 million workers through this year and continuing long-term jobless benefits, congressional aides said.

After months of wrangling, congressional leaders appear to be close to a deal on extending the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits, and the so-called “doc fix” for Medicare physician reimbursements through the end of the year.

Payroll processing company Payroll City has developed an interface module to help users transfer all of their payroll data with QuickBooks

KPMG LLP said Monday that it would offer tax offsets to its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender partners and employees for the additional federal and state tax costs they incur when they pay for the medical benefits of same-sex domestic partners.

The economy created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January and the unemployment rate dropped to a near three-year low of 8.3 percent, providing some measure of comfort for President Barack Obama who faces re-election in November.

Small business owners’ optimism about the economy held steady in January, according to payroll provider SurePayroll.

Small business-focused cloud accounting software developer Wave Accounting has released its first online payroll tool, Wave Payroll, initially targeted toward Canadian users, with a U.S. version planned for mid-2012.

Private sector employers added 170,000 jobs in January, according to the monthly national employment report from payroll giant ADP, which saw most of the gains in small and midsized businesses come in the service sector.

It was the heart of the college football Bowl Championship Series last month, when approximately 150 deans, faculty and administrators from prominent business schools gathered in New York for Ernst & Young's Campus Diversity and Inclusiveness Roundtable.