The American economy added 156,000 new jobs in the month of December, continuing a record streak of 75 consecutive months of job growth, according to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, ticked up by 0.1 percent to 4.7 percent between November and December. Labor force participation also ticked up by 0.1 percent, to 62.7 percent, and average hourly earnings for all private workers increased 2.9 percent over the past year. For all of 2016, the number of long-term unemployed declined by 263,000 and the number of discouraged workers dropped by 237,000 between December 2015 and last month.