The U.S. economy added jobs faster than expected in December. Federal Reserve policymakers are closely monitoring the labor market's strength ahead of their upcoming meeting.
The Labor Department said employers added 256,000 jobs in December. This exceeded economists' estimates from LSEG.
The unemployment rate dipped slightly to 4.1%. This was lower than the anticipated figure.
Revisions were made to job numbers from previous months. October's job gains were revised up by 7,000, from 36,000 to 43,000. November's were revised down by 15,000, from 227,000 to 212,000. In total, 8,000 fewer jobs were created than earlier reported.
Private sector payrolls grew by 223,000 in December. This far surpassed the LSEG estimate of 135,000.
However, the manufacturing sector saw a surprising drop. Employment in this area fell by 13,000, despite predictions of a 5,000-job increase.