America’s hiring slowdown continued last month, with employers struggling to fill jobs as many workers remained on the sidelines.Employers added 199,000 jobs in December, the Labor Department said Friday, the smallest monthly gain of the year. The deceleration began in November, when 249,000 jobs were added.The unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent, from 4.2 percent.Paired with strong wage growth — average hourly earnings climbed by 4.7 percent over the year, more than the 4.2 percent that economists in a Bloomberg survey expected — the swift decline in the jobless rate seems to suggest that a dearth of available workers may be, in part, what is holding hiring back.“The unemployment rate is a reliable barometer, and it’s going down f …
