The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that non-farm payrolls rose to 312,000 in December, surging past expectations of 184,000. The BLS also upwardly revised its figure for non-farm payroll additions in November to 176,000, from 155,000 previously reported.
This story by Emily McCormick originally appeared in Yahoo! Finance.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.9 percent in December. The unemployment rate was 3.7 percent in November, the lowest overall unemployment level since 1969. The uptick was due to the labor force participation rate increasing to 63.1 percent in December from 62.9 percent in November.
Average hourly earnings – a closely watched metric of inflation pressures in the economy – increased 0.4 percent over last month and 3.2 percent over the previous year. This exceeded expectations of wage growth of 0.3 percent over last month and 3 percent over last year. Wages rose 3.1 percent over the prior year in both November and October.
The results of Friday’s job report do not capture any impact from the ongoing partial government shutdown, which began after the Labor Department conducted the survey. An extended shutdown, however, could go on to affect January’s figures.