Sluggish Jobs Numbers Lower Than Expected

Sluggish hiring last month closed out a year of weak employment gains even as layoffs and unemployment have also been low, per the AP. It was, in other words, a "low hire, low fire" year, as the Wall Street Journal puts it. The details:

• Numbers: Employers added 50,000 jobs in December, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists polled by the Journal expected 73,000 new jobs.
• Rate: The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November, a figure also revised lower.

• Context: December's report caps a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after "liberation day" in April when President Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries, though many were later delayed or softened. The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of 2025. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.
• Quote: "We're seeing a slowdown in job gains, and employment has been choppy—but the labor market isn't falling off a cliff," Nela Richardson, chief economist at payroll processor ADP, tells the Journal.
• Market: Stock futures rose in the wake of the report, with investors speculating that the "middling" numbers might prompt the Fed to cut rates again, reports CNBC. Dow futures were up about 140 points.