US adds whopping 256K jobs in December

The U.S. added 256,000 jobs and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1 percent in December, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.

The December jobs report showed the U.S. economy blowing past expectations to end the year. Economists projected the U.S. to gain 155,000 jobs and hold the jobless rate at 4.2 percent, according to consensus estimates.

The new jobs data caps off another year of sturdy job gains since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.