About 3 million more Americans found work in 2014, the most in 15 years and a sign companies are optimistic U.S. demand will persist even as overseas markets struggle. The drop in workers’ hourly wages means Federal Reserve policy makers are less likely to move up the timing of an interest-rate increase.

“The data certainly don’t point to any wage pressures,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut. “There’s nothing to worry about with respect to inflation. It lowers the odds of the Fed having to move faster than they’d like.”
Shares Drop

Stocks fell, after a two-day rally in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, on the drop in wages and concern grew that Europe’s stimulus plan might not be sufficient. The S&P 500 declined 0.8 percent to 2,044.81 at the close in New York. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note retreated to 1.95 percent from 2.02 percent late yesterday.

Job growth last month was highlighted by the biggest gain in construction employment in almost a year. Factories, health care providers and business services also kept adding workers in December.

The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 99 economists called for a 240,000 advance in payrolls. Estimates ranged from 160,000 to 305,000 after a previously reported 321,000 November increase. Revisions to prior reports added a total of 50,000 jobs to the previous two months.

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