WASHINGTON — U.S. hiring picked up unexpectedly in December as employers added 256,000 jobs, another sign of the economy's resilience in the face of high interest rates.

The Labor Department reported Friday that job growth was up last month from 212,000 in November.

For all of 2024, the economy added 2.2 million jobs, a solid number but down from 3 million in 2023, 4.5 million in 2022 and a record 6.4 million in 2021 as the economy bounded back from massive pandemic layoffs.

The monthly numbers beat forecasters' expectation of around 155,000 new jobs and 4.2% unemployment. Healthcare and government jobs led the December increase.

Labor Department revisions shaved 8,000 jobs from October and November payrolls.

Average hourly wages rose 0.3% from November and 3.9% from a year earlier. The year-over-year wage gain was slightly less than economists had forecast.

Getting a clear view of the U.S. job market hasn't been easy the past few months.

Hurricanes and a big strike at Boeing threw off the October jobs numbers, pushing them down and setting up a payback rebound in November that likely exaggerated the strength of hiring.

The December jobs numbers delivered a clearer reading of where things stand.

Over the past few years, the economy and the job market have shown surprising resilience. 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, taking it to the highest level in more than two decades.

The higher borrowing costs were widely expected to cause a recession but didn't. Companies kept hiring, consumers kept spending, and the economy kept rolling along. In fact, U.S. gross domestic product – the nation's output of goods and services -- has expanded at a robust annual pace of 3% or more in four of the last five quarters.

American workers enjoy unusual job security. Layoffs are running below the pre-pandemic trend. On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that just 211,000 people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the fewest in nearly a year.

Inflation has come down, too, from a peak of 9.1% in June 2022 to 2.7% in November. 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.

Looking to boost his economic legacy before he leaves office later this month, President Joe Biden noted Friday the U.S. economy added more than 16 million jobs during his term and never lost jobs in any single month. 

“The new playbook is working,” he said. “But in 10 days, our administration will end and a new administration will begin. And we're going to face another inflection point: Do we continue to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, as we have the past four year, or do we backslide to an economic theory that benefits those at the very top while working people and middle-class people struggle for their fair share of growth?”

But Fed officials signaled at their December meeting that they planned to be more cautious about rate cuts this year. They now project just two rate reductions in 2025, down from the four they envisioned back in September. Progress against inflation has stalled in recent months, and it remains stuck above the Fed's 2% target.

U.S. stocks fell Friday on worries that the good jobs report may be bad for Wall Street because it may keep inflation and interest rates high.

The S&P 500 tumbled 1.5% to close its fourth losing week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 696 points, or 1.6%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.6%.