Free Republic

The U.S. capped off 2022 with another month of strong job growth and wage gains, according to federal data released Friday, a sign that the U.S. economy and inflation could be harder to tame than expected. The economy added 223,000 jobs in December and brought the unemployment rate down to 3.5 percent, back down to its pre-pandemic level in February 2020, the Labor Department reported Friday. Wage growth also stayed brisk as earnings rose 0.3 percent in November and 4.6 percent over the past 12 months.