December jobs growth fuels recovery for US economy

The recovery of the US economy has taken another major step forward with the news that job growth remained solid in December with the addition of another 292,000 jobs, the BBC reports.

The data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which also revealed that the jobless rate held at 5%, a seven-and-a-half-year low. Following the recent move by the Federal Reserve to increase rates in the US, the latest figures may have implications for a similar move in the UK.

Job increases

There were job increases across many sectors in the US, including professional and business services, construction, health care, as well as food services.

Bucking the positive trend, jobs in mining dropped by 8,000, which means losses in that particular sector totalled 129,000 in 2015.

An average of 284,000 jobs a month were created in the last quarter of 2015, making it the best three months of the year.

Chug along

Kate Warne, an investment strategist at Edward Jones, told the BBC: "It is one more sign the domestic economy continues to chug along."

"It is not a game changer in terms of faster economic growth, but it offsets some of the other indicators that recently have suggested the economy might be slowing down," she explained.

An increase in US consumer spending has led employers to hire staff even though there has been a drop in US exports mainly caused by the strength of the dollar on the international currency markets.