President Barack Obama delivers his final State of the Union address on Tuesday night to a nation whose economy is far sturdier than it was when he took office in 2009.
Yet the stout job market is accompanied by tepid economic growth and flat wages. More broadly, two issues are on the rise, to the president's dismay: global temperatures and concerns about terrorism.
A snapshot of the country:
THE BIG PICTURE
Friday's December jobs report capped a year in which employers added 2.65 million positions. That made 2015 the second best year since 1999 for job gains, exceeded only in 2014.
For a third straight month, the unemployment rate was 5 per cent. That's half the 10 per cent joblessness registered in October 2009, as the country began climbing out of the recession.
But average hourly pay seems stuck, sliding one cent last month to $25.24. That left the growth of average pay at 2.5 per cent last year, below the 3.5 per cent economists consider healthy.
The latest figures show the overall economy growing at a modest 2 per cent annual rate in last year's July to September quarter, though analysts expect improvement.
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THE ECONOMY, FROM OTHER ANGLES
For Wall Street, 2015 was a roller coaster. Record highs in spring were followed by an abrupt summertime swoon, prompted by worries about the strong dollar's impact on exports, China's slowing economy and sagging oil prices.
By year's end, the Dow Jones industrial average had faded by 2.2 per cent, its first down year since 2008. And it began 2016 with steep declines fueled by continued China worries.
Through November, the most recent figure, inflation grew by 0.4 per cent for the past 12 months. That minuscule rise was well below the annual 2 per cent increase the Federal Reserve prefers.
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CONSUMER BONUSES
Oil prices slumped to their lowest levels since 2004.
Though the Federal Reserve raised a key interest rate for the first time in seven years, homebuyers' mortgage interest rates remained at a relatively low 3.97 per cent last week. That's up slightly from a year earlier but well south of the historic 6 per cent average.
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SECURE, OR NOT?
There was a growing threat from the Islamic State group. The November killing of 130 people in Paris and last month's shooting in San Bernardino, California, by a radicalized Muslim couple helped fuel public worries.
Polls show growing concerns about terrorism and allowing Muslims to enter the U.S.
There were 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and 3,300 in Iraq as 2015 ended, amid continuing violence in both regions.
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MORE GUNS
The FBI reported conducting more background checks on gun buyers in December than in any month since the system began in 1988. It processed over 3.3 million checks in December and 23.1 million in 2015, its busiest year ever.
Despite Obama's recent executive actions aimed at curbing gun violence, gun manufacturers' stocks have risen in value.
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THE HEAT IS ON
More than 200 nations reached agreement last month to try curbing global warming by restricting the use of fossil fuels, which emit heat-trapping gases. It was an Obama priority.
Yet the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said last week that 2015 was the second warmest and third wettest year in 121 years of record-keeping for the lower 48 states, in part thanks to the El Nino natural warming of the Pacific Ocean that affects climate worldwide. NOAA expects figures later this month to show that last year was the hottest ever recorded globally.
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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.