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Post by bot on Jan 9, 2015 17:46:46 GMT -5
U.S. adds 252,000 jobs in December, unemployment falls to 5.6%
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The U.S. added 252,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate fell to 5.6% from 5.8%, but hourly wages declined and more Americans dropped out of the labor force. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a seasonally adjusted gain of 230,000 nonfarm jobs in the last month of 2014. Average hourly wages fell 0.2%, lowering the 12-month increase to just 1.7%, the Labor Department said Friday. Year over year increases have stuck to a tight range of 1.7% to 2.2% since 2010 even though hiring has surged. The amount of time people worked each week, meanwhile, was unchanged at 34.6 hours to remain at postrecession high. Employment gains for November and October were revised up by a combined 50,000. The government said 353,000 new jobs were created in November, up from a preliminary 321,000. October's gain was raised to 261,000 from 243,000. The economy created 2.95 million new jobs in 2014, marking the biggest hiring spree since a 3.2 million increase in 1999. Yet the labor-force participation rate dropped 0.2 percentage points in December to 62.7%, matching a postrecession low and a level last seen in 1978.
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