U.S. Job Growth Misses Estimates As Wage Growth Accelerates

(RTTNews) - A report released by the Labor Department on Friday showed that employment in the U.S. rose by less than anticipated in the month of December.

The report said non-farm payroll employment climbed by 156,000 jobs in December, while economists had expected an increase of about 175,000 jobs.

While the increase in employment in November was upwardly revised to 204,000, the increase in employment in October was downwardly revised to 135,000, reflecting a net addition of 19,000 jobs.

The Labor Department pointed to job growth in health care and social assistance, while employment in temporary help services declined during the month.

The report also said the unemployment rate inched up to 4.7 percent in December from 4.6 percent in November, matching economist estimates.

The uptick in the employment rate came after it fell to its lowest level since hitting a matching rate in August of 2007 in the previous month.

The rebound came as the number of people in the labor force increased by 184,000, outweighing a more modest 63,000 increase in the household survey of employment.

Additionally, the Labor Department said the annual rate of growth in average hourly employee earnings accelerated to 2.9 percent from 2.5 percent, reaching the fastest rate of growth since June of 2009.

Rob Carnell, Chief International Economist at ING Commercial Banking, suggested the notably faster rate of wage growth raises the possibility of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve in March.

"In short, this report underlines that the U.S. labor market is tight and getting tighter," Carnell said. "The Fed will not want to hang about before tightening again."