US economy beats expectations with strong December jobs report

The US economy closed out a strong year with the addition of 216,000 jobs in December holding the unemployment rate at 3.7%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed Friday. The strong December jobs report wrapped up what CNN described as a “year of resilience in the labor market.”

Economists had estimated only 170,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate of 3.8% for the month, CNBC reported. The government, healthcare, leisure and hospitality, social assistance, and construction sectors saw job gains, while warehousing and transportation lost jobs, according to the BLS.

Last month’s strong jobs performance closes an “extraordinary year” in job creation, Joe Brusuelas, principal and chief economist for RSM US LLP, wrote in a note on Friday. “During the past year, the unemployment rate averaged 3.6% and closed the year at 3.7% in the best year for labor since the 1950s.”

Not all observers shared his enthusiasm, however.

“The part that probably has markets worried the most is that unemployment fell and wages accelerated,” Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, told Reuters. “Those two things by themselves are pretty troubling. In order to bring inflation down we need those numbers to cool off faster. That’s where much of the market reaction will center, on those two numbers.”