Employers in the United States added 145,000 jobs to close out the year, keeping the unemployment rate at a record low 3.5%, according to federal data released Friday.

That pushed the number of jobs created in 2019 past 2.1 million, a pace that the U.S. economy has hit for the ninth year in a row, though the monthly average slipped from 223,000 in 2018, when the economy added 2.7 million jobs.

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