Hiring in the world's biggest economy stood at 256,000 last month, up from a revised 212,000 in November, the Labor Department said.
Lawmakers have suspended the debt ceiling -- a limit on government borrowing to pay for bills already incurred -- until January 1 next year.
The US consumer confidence index slipped to 104.7 in December, down from a revised 112.8 last month, The Conference Board announced in a statement.
The Fed is also tipped to signal a slower path of cuts going forward amid uncertainty over the impact of President-elect Donald Trump's economic proposals
The consumer price index (CPI) rose to 2.7 percent last month from a year ago
The lame-duck president's speech comes after Trump won a second term largely on the back of US voters' anger at high costs of living under Democrats.
The labour market's resilience is driving the economy through strong consumer spending, with the closely watched employment report from the Labor Department on Friday showing solid wage growth last month
Holiday shoppers largely browsed at brick-and-mortar stores, making more online purchases at some retailers, snapping up such items as pre-owned Rolex watches,
The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate from Congress to keep both inflation and unemployment under control, and recently began rolling back high interest rates in order to better support the labor market
The rate-cut lowers the cost of borrowing for consumers and businesses, bringing some relief to households weeks before November's presidential election -- even as the Fed works independently of the US administration
If Harris manages to defeat Republican candidate Donald Trump, she will likely face a much more constraining fiscal and political environment than her predecessors
The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index was up 2.2 percent from a year ago in August, down from 2.5 percent in July, the Commerce Department said
US Vice President Kamala Harris plans to roll out a new set of economic policies this week that aim to help Americans build wealth and set economic incentives for businesses to aid that goal, three sources with knowledge of the matter said
"It reflects confidence on the part of the Fed that inflation has come way down and is on the path back to the two percent target, and that the risks with respect to inflation have really meaningfully diminished," Yellen told an event in Washington
The US Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates by half a percentage point gives consumers a much-needed psychological boost ahead of November's presidential election.
The Federal Reserve cut US short-term borrowing costs on Wednesday by a bigger-than-usual half percentage point, a watershed moment that should start to ease some of the financial pressures everyday consumers have felt
How stocks, bonds and the dollar perform after the Federal Reserve kicks off its rate-cutting cycle could depend on one factor more than most: the health of the US economy.
With inflation easing and the labor market cooling, it will likely be appropriate for the US Federal Reserve to make a series of interest rate cuts in the coming months, a senior official said Friday
US manufacturing contracted at a moderate pace in August amid some improvement in employment, but a further decline in new orders and rise in inventory suggested factory activity could remain subdued for a while
