Businesses added many more workers to their payrolls last month than economists expected, and their pay rose at a healthy clip -- further evidence of strength in the job market despite a slowdown in the economy. The Labor Department reported this morning that nonfarm employment grew by a net 167,000 jobs in December, seasonally adjusted -- more than enough to absorb natural growth in the work force. The figures for October and November were revised upward as well. Wall Street had been expecting a gain of only 100,000 jobs in December. The national unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.5 percent.
See "Job Market Ends 2006 on Strong Note", Jeremy W. Peters, The New York Times, January 4, 2007