close video Jobs report is very difficult to forecast, analyst says

FHN Financial chief economist takes a closer look at consumer confidence falling for the second straight month on ‘Making Money.’

Hiring by U.S. companies picked up steam in December, a sign the jobs market remains healthy even in the face of steep Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, according to the ADP National Employment Report released Thursday morning. 

Companies added 235,000 jobs last month, easily beating the 150,000 gain that economists surveyed by Refinitiv had predicted.  

"The labor market is strong but fragmented, with hiring varying sharply by industry and establishment size," said Nela Richardson, the chief economist at ADP. "Business segments that hired aggressively in the first half of 2022 have slowed hiring and in some cases cut jobs in the last month of the year."

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