The strength of U.S. hiring surprised economists in June, beating all forecasts with 224,000 payrolls added. The latest jobs figures, released Friday morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows hiring rebounded after a low 72,000 advance the prior month. The strong report is likely to undermine support for lowering interest rates. However, the unemployment rate managed to creep up to 3.7 percent from a half-century low of 3.6 percent, and average hourly earnings increased slightly less than projected at 3.1 percent from a year earlier.