US Economy Added Only 74000 Jobs in December

The American economy added just 74,000 jobs in December, well below analyst expectations, even as the unemployment rate dropped to 6.7 percent.

The latest data from the Labor Department suggests that the economy lost some momentum as the year drew to a close. But the gains for November were revised up significantly.

The payroll gain in December was much slower than the pace of job creation in the previous three months, when the economy added roughly 200,000 jobs per month. Economists polled by Bloomberg had estimated the economy would add the same in December, with the unemployment rate expected to be flat at 7 percent.