The December jobs report, released Friday, shows the US economy finished the year strong, with figures blowing past economists’ expectations.

The economy added 216,000 jobs in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), more than the 160,000 jobs economists projected, according to CNN. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7%.

“The prognosticators have, throughout the year, underestimated what’s going on in the labor market,” Lori Wisper, managing director at financial services firm WTW, told HR Brew. “We’ve had a really strong labor market for 2023.”

Zoom out. Despite several rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, the labor market grew by 2.7 million jobs last year, a dip from the pandemic-era boom of the previous two years, but more than any other year since 2015, NPR reported.

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