<a class="post__byline-name-unhyphenated" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/associated-press" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" itemprop="author"> <span itemprop="name">Associated Press</span> </a> <a class="post__byline-name-hyphenated" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/associated-press"> Associated Press </a> <br>Leave your feedback<br>President Joe Biden lauded his administration’s record on the economy after the labor department reported Friday a surge in job growth and decline in unemployment last month.<br><strong>Watch Biden’s remarks in the player above.</strong><br>“We’ve created jobs every single month I was in office,” Biden told reporters Friday, 10 days before his administration ends.<br>“I believe the economy I’m leaving is the best in the world and stronger than ever for all Americans,” said Biden. “We’ll see what the next president does.”<br><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/bidens-complex-legacy-as-his-50-years-in-public-office-comes-to-an-end"><strong>WATCH:</strong> Biden’s complex legacy as his 50 years in public office comes to an end</a><br>Employers added 256,000 jobs last month, up from 212,000 in November, the Labor Department reported.<br>The final jobs report of 2024 underscores that the economy and hiring were able to grow at a solid pace even with interest rates much higher than they were before the pandemic.<br>As a result, the Federal Reserve could be much less likely to cut borrowing costs again in the coming months.<br>The Fed cut its rate three times last year in part out of concern that hiring and growth were flagging.<br>Overall, the solid jobs figures suggest the economy is entering a post-COVID period of steady growth, higher interest rates, low unemployment, and slightly elevated inflation.<br>Biden is handing a largely solid economy to his successor, President-elect Donald Trump, though many Americans have been hit hard by the price spikes of the past three years and have generally been pessimistic about the economic outlook.<br>Last month’s U.S. job growth and unemployment decline is an unexpected show of strength that may prove costly to homebuyers and businesses who were counting on sharply lower interest rates to lower the cost of buying everything from refrigerators to homes.<br>U.S. markets tumbled on the release of December’s jobs numbers as investors sensed the odds of further interest rate cuts have faded.<br>But rates are still painfully high for Americans trying to buy a house, a car, or even a kitchen appliance.<br>Mortgage rates have risen for four consecutive weeks to reach the highest level since July.<br>Average hourly wages rose 0.3 percent from November and 3.9 percent from a year earlier. The year-over-year wage gain was slightly less than economists had forecast.<br>Over the past few years, the strength of the U.S. economy and the job market have surprised almost everyone.<br>Responding to inflation that hit a four-decade high two and a half years ago, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate – the fed funds rate — 11 times in 2022 and 2023, pushing it to the highest level in more than two decades.<br>A much-anticipated recession never happened.<br>Companies kept hiring, consumers kept spending, and the economy continued to roll. In fact, U.S. gross domestic product – the nation’s output of goods and services — has expanded at a robust annual pace of 3 percent or more in four of the last five quarters.<br>Inflation has come down, too, from a peak of 9.1 percent in June 2022 to 2.7 percent in November.<br>The drop in year-over-year price increases gave the Fed enough confidence to cut rates three times in the last four months of 2024.<br>But Fed officials signaled in December that they planned to be more cautious about rate cuts this year.<br>They now project just two rate reductions in 2025, down from the four they envisioned back in September.<br>Progress against inflation has stalled in recent months, and it remains stuck above the Fed’s 2 percent target.<br><span>By</span> Will Weissert, Amelia Thomson-Deveaux, Associated Press<br><span>By</span> Gisela Salomon, Associated Press<br><span>By</span> Collin Binkley, Associated Press<br><span>By</span> Kenichi Serino<br><span>By</span> Nick Schifrin, Dan Sagalyn<br><span>By</span> Fatima Hussein, Associated Press<br><span>By</span> Matthew Daly, Associated Press<br> <a class="post__byline-name-unhyphenated" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/associated-press" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" itemprop="author"> <span itemprop="name">Associated Press</span> </a> <a class="post__byline-name-hyphenated" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/author/associated-press"> Associated Press </a> <br> <span>Support Provided By:</span> <a href="https://help.pbs.org/support/solutions/articles/5000677869" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Learn more</a> <br>Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else.<br>Thank you. 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