The latest jobs report from the Labor Department revealed that employers added 216,000 jobs in December 2023 and surpassing the 173,000 jobs added in November 2023. The unemployment rate remained steady at 3.7 percent.
The report exceeding expectations. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones were expecting payroll numbers to increase by only 170,000 and for the unemployment rate to increase to 3.8 percent.
However, November’s number was downwardly revised, as was October’s — from 150,000 to 105,000 — suggesting that celebrating the latest December numbers may be premature, and that jobs gains in the fourth quarter of 2023 weren’t actually all that impressive.
The biggest hiring boost came in the form of 52,000 new government jobs.