SLOWDOWN?:

U.S. job market ends 2006 on bright note (Jeremy W. Peters, January 5, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

U.S. businesses added many more workers to their payrolls last month than economists expected, and workers' pay rose at a healthy clip — further evidence of strength in the job market despite a slowdown in the economy.

The U.S. Labor Department reported Friday that nonfarm employment grew by a seasonally adjusted 167,000 jobs in December, more than enough to absorb natural growth in the number of workers. The figures for October and November were revised upward as well.