The Labor Department issued its monthly jobs report for December this morning, showing that employers added 292,000 jobs during the month. However, the unemployment rate stayed at 5 percent and hourly wages didn’t grow.
This is the third month in a row that the unemployment rate was at 5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The number of unemployed persons is at 7.9 million and the number of long-term unemployed also didn’t change much, staying at 2.1 million in December.
Private businesses added 275,000 jobs in the month, and governments added 17,000.
The report gives hints that the U.S. economy can stay strong while other economies around the globe struggle. However, this could change over the next month. The New York Times notes that trouble in China and elsewhere could hurt U.S. exports, which would affect the manufacturing sector. Only 14,000 jobs were added in manufacturing, which only added 30,000 jobs all year.
Also, December is often a month with increased hiring due to the holiday season.
As USA Today notes, the average monthly jobs report for 2015 showed 225,000 jobs added. That was down from the 260,000 monthly average in 2014.