167,000 jobs added in December; paychecks grow, too

WASHINGTON (AP) — Employers stepped up hiring last month, boosting payrolls by a strong 167,000 and keeping the unemployment rate steady at a historically low 4.5%. Workers' wages grew briskly.

The latest snapshot of the nation's employment climate, released Friday by the Labor Department, showed that the jobs market ended 2006 on a strong note and provided fresh evidence that the troubled housing and automotive sectors aren't dragging down employment across the country.

"The manufacturing side of the economy may be weak, but the rest of the economy is strong and that suggests that we're probably going to see continued good economic growth in the months ahead," said Gary Thayer, chief economist for A.G. Edwards and Sons in St. Louis.

The department also revised up November hiring to show 154,000 new jobs instead of 132,000 that it reported a month ago and it said there were 86,000 new jobs in October instead of 79,000.