News Analysis Payrolls increased by almost 200,000 last December according to the new data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, continuing a downward trend for total unemployment but underperforming relative to previous expectations. On Friday, the Department of Labor released its widely studied monthly jobs report (pdf), which described a month of steady but significantly underwhelming jobs creation. Overall, nonfarm payroll increased by 199,000. Previously, a poll of economists conducted by Reuters had forecasted a payroll increase of 400,000 in the last month, with individual estimates ranging from 150,000 to 1 million. Nonetheless, unemployment fell 0.3 percent to a total of 3.9 percent, bringing the percentage to its lowest rate since February 2020, with a total of 6.3 million people now counted as unemployed (a decrease of 483,000). The report also indicated a modest rise in hourly wage earnings of 0.6 percent. Provisional figures based on the consumer price index estimate …