The U.S. Labor Department says 30,000 construction jobs and 25,000 manufacturing jobs were added in the month.
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A trader works Thursday on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York. Futures ticked up with today's unemployment report.
After November's rate was revised up to 7.8 percent, it was officially unchanged month-to-month. The private sector continued to do better than the public sector, with 168,000 jobs created in private nonfarm businesses in December while governments shed 13,000 jobs.
Revisions to September and October raised the number of jobs in the economy by 14,000.
The economy added about 153,000 jobs per month in 2012, with a little more than 1.8 million jobs created for the year.
Construction added 30,000 jobs in December while manufacturing picked up 25,000 jobs, according to the report.
“The economy has recorded private sector job growth for 34 consecutive months," U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said in a news release. "While the continued growth in December represents progress, Republicans and Democrats in Congress must work together in the coming months to help businesses create jobs and ensure American families and communities can continue to recover.”
The workforce participation rate stayed the same at 63.6 percent as the labor force expanded from 155,319,000 to 155,511,000, according to the household survey. The number of unemployed increased by about 150,000 to 12,206,000. Unemployment among blacks went from 13.2 to 14 percent and it improved among Hispanics from 9.9 to 9.6 percent. Those "marginally attached" to the labor force went from 2,505,000 to 2,614,000.
The number of long-term unemployed -- those out of work for at least 27 weeks -- was basically unchanged at 4.8 million, making up 39.1 percent of the jobless, according to government figures. Part-time workers remained about the same at 7.9 million.
The average work week ticked up to 34.5 hours and average hourly earnings increased 7 cents to $23.73, according to the establishment survey.