ECONOMY

U.S. Workers Earned Slightly More in December: Americans’ average weekly paychecks showed only modest improvement in December after posting a big decline the previous month, the Labor Department said. Average weekly earnings rose 0.1% after inflation in December, following a 1.3% drop in November. An increase of 0.3% in average hourly earnings helped bolster the overall figures. But those gains were offset in part by a rise of 0.2% in the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers. Average weekly hours of workers remained unchanged last month. Real earnings in December were up 0.4% from earnings in December, 1993, the department said.