US economy added 50K jobs in December as unemployment rate declines

The U.S. economy saw modest job growth in December as employers hired at a steady pace amid economic uncertainty.

The Labor Department on Friday reported that employers added 50,000 jobs in December. That figure was cooler than the expectations of economists polled by LSEG, who projected 60,000 jobs would be added for the month.

The unemployment rate declined slightly to 4.4% in December. That reading was lower than economists' expectations of a 4.5% rate. The decline comes after the...