WASHINGTON – U.S. job growth unexpectedly accelerated in December while the unemployment rate fell to 4.1% as the labor market ended the year on a solid footing, reinforcing views that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates unchanged this month. The Labor Department’s employment report on Friday also showed a decline last month in the number of people who have permanently lost their jobs and a shortening in the median duration of unemployment. A rise in these measures had raised concerns about labor market deterioration. The upbeat report also supported the U.S. central bank’s cautious stance toward further monetary policy easing this year amid mounting fears that pledges by President-elect Donald Trump to impose or massively raise tariffs on imports and deport millions of undocumented immigrants could stoke inflation. …The economy is expanding at well above the 1.8% pace that Fed officials regard as the non-inflationary growth rate.