Employers probably added jobs in December at about the same pace as the prior month, showing the U.S. labor market held up as lawmakers struggled to resolve the fiscal impasse, economists said before a report this week. Payrolls rose by 150,000 workers after a 146,000 gain in November, according to the median forecast of 54 economists surveyed by Bloomberg ahead of Labor Department figures due Jan. 4. The unemployment rate may have held at 7.7 percent, the lowest since December 2008. “Job growth around 150,000 is a decent way to end the year,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics ... (Read the full story)
