The U.S. job market appears to be entering 2020 on a solid footing. A survey by data provider FactSet shows economists expect that Friday's jobs report will show job gains of 160,000 in December.
The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 3.5 percent. But key in the report will be whether the decade-plus expansion causes average hourly earnings to climb above the 3.1 percent annual gain seen in November.
That would be a sign employers are having to pay more to attract workers. Expectations for the employment report were amplified by Wednesday's report from the payroll processor ADP that private companies added 202,000 jobs in December.
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