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The nation's unemployment rate ticked downward to 4.5 percent last month, even as harsh winter storms restrained job creation by U.S. employers to a modest 97,000 new positions, the Labor Department reported this morning. "Given the lousy weather and the large decline in construction, the total gain was not that bad," observed Joel Naroff, head of Naroff Economic Advisors. In fact, the payroll report landed almost exactly at the abuot 100,000 new jobs most experts had been expecting. Workers' wages continued to strengthen in February, a trend that on one hand will likely ensure that consumers continue spending -- but which also promises to keep the Federal Reserve keenly conscious of inflation as a continuing economic threat.