U.S. employers added 263,000 jobs in November, more than analyst expectations for 200,000, while the unemployment rate held steady at 3.7% and wage growth surged 0.6% on the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

Average hourly earnings grew 5.1% through the year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Federal Reserve officials are looking for wage gains to slow as they raise interest rates.

The leisure and hospitality (+88,000), health care (+45,000) and government (+42,000) sectors led job gains. Retail trade declined by 30,000 in November. Monthly job growth has averaged 392,000 thus far in 2022, compared with 562,000 per month in 2021. The labor force participation rate at 62.1% and the employment to population ratio at 59.9% were both down a tenth from October.