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U.S. added 292,000 jobs in December
The United States added 292,000 jobs in December, rounding out a year of steady growth; the jobless rate remained at 5 percent. "The remarkable thing is how consistent employment growth has been over the past three or four years," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told The New York Times. "We're getting at least 200,000 jobs per month on a consistent basis. That's quite an achievement." Many of the gains were in temporary-help services, health care, transportation, and construction, Bloomberg reports.
Payrolls also grew in December, making 2015 the second-best year for employees since 1999 and supporting the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates.