Employment in the U.S. increased by much less than expected in the month of December, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Friday.
The report said non-farm payroll employment edged up by 74,000 jobs in December following an upwardly revised increase of 241,000 jobs in November.
Economists had been expecting employment to increase by about 200,000 jobs compared to the addition of 203,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
Despite the weaker than expected job growth, the unemployment rate dropped to 6.7 percent in December from 7.0 percent in November.
While the drop in the unemployment rate came as a surprise to economists, the decline was largely due to a decrease in the size of the civilian labor force.
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