In another sign the labor market is improving, the country added 200,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate dipped to 8.5% from 8.6%. Private-sector employment rose by 212,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced.
In the past year, the economy has added 1.6 million jobs.
“We think these trends augur well for 2012 and we look for job creation of around 200,000 per month through the year,” wrote John Ryding and Conrad DeQuadros of RDQ Economics. “There is nothing in these data to support further easing actions by the Federal Reserve and we continue to expect that the Fed will not launch QE3.”
Economists had been expecting the economy to add 155,000 jobs. November and October jobs numbers were also revised — October up by 12,000, November down by 20,000.
In more good news from the report, earnings were up 0.2% and the average length of the workweek rose to 34.4 hours from 34.3 hours.
The strong number and the dip in unemployment is helping push the market higher this morning. The Dow is up 69 points to 12,400. The S&P 500 is up 8.2 points to 1,281.3. Financial stocks were mostly rising, with Citigroup (C) up 0.8% in pre-market trading.
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