December jobs: 155,000 added, unemployment rate at 7.8 percent

Chart from Calculated Risk of monthly job growth, excluding the Census hiring bump. The December jobs report showed a continuation of steady gains, but while those gains were enough to keep pace with population growth, they fell short of what's needed to make a serious reduction in unemployment:

Despite their concerns about looming tax increases and government spending cuts, American employers added 155,000 jobs in December, about apace with job growth over the last year, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

The biggest gains were in health care, food services, construction and manufacturing, and the government sector showed modest job losses, the report said. The unemployment rate was 7.8 percent, the same as in November, whose rate was revised up from 7.7 percent.

'It's not a home-run report by any stretch, but it's constructive,' said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics. 'It's another month of fairly stable, solid, moderate job creation.'

Over the course of 2012, the country added 1.8 million jobs, despite continued job losses in the government sector and anxiety related to the presidential election and scheduled tax increases and spending cuts.

Although November's unemployment rate was revised up from 7.7 percent to 7.8 percent, the number of jobs created were revised up as well, going from 146,000 to 161,000. The October numbers were revised down by 1,000 jobs.