Labor Market Grew Faster Than Expected As Unemployment Clocks In At 4.1%
Job growth was stronger than economists anticipated last month, according to the Labor Department’s monthly nonfarm payrolls report released Friday morning, a key datapoint as investors and policymakers reassess the state of the economy ahead of the shift in power in the nation’s capital.
The U.S. added an estimated 256,000 jobs in December, smashing consensus economist estimates of a seasonally adjusted 153,000, according to FactSet.
The unemployment rate was 4.1% last month, compared to forecasts of 4.2%, where it stood in November.
Average hourly wages increased by 0.3% to $35.69, marking the 45th straight month of record pay for workers, though the 3.9% annual wages bump is a far cry from the more than 4.5% growth enjoyed by workers across Sept. 2021 through Sept. 2023 as record job switching fueled significant wage increases.
The government also said it revised its prior estimates for October job growth upward by 7,000 and for November job growth downward by 8,000.
Source: Bloomberg
