The U.S. economy added 167,000 new jobs in December 2006, keeping the unemployment rate steady at 4.5 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The job reading exceeded the gain of around 115,000 expected by analysts and was the best showing since September.

For all of 2006, employers added 1.8 million jobs to their payrolls and the nation's jobless rate dropped to 4.6 percent, a six-year low. In 2005, the unemployment rate averaged 5.1 percent.

American workers' average hourly earnings jumped to 17.04 dollars, up 0.5 percent from the previous month. The gain was bigger than the 0.3 percent increase that analysts had been expecting.

Over the last 12 months, wages grew by 4.2 percent, exceeding only by a 4.3 percent annual increase in November 2000.

The employment report for December provided fresh evidence that the slumping housing automotive sectors are not dragging down employment across the country, according to analysts.

Source: Xinhua