US economy added 50,000 jobs in December, capping off one of the weakest years of job gains in decades
Hiring slowed more than expected in December, a sluggish end to what was one of the weakest years of job growth in decades, a dynamic that further amplified America’s affordability crisis.The US economy added an estimated 50,000 jobs last month, slowing from a downwardly revised 56,000 jobs added in November, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday.
Still, the unemployment rate edged lower to 4.4% from a revised 4.5% in November.
With December’s estimated job gains, which are subject to revision, the US economy added just 584,000 jobs last year. Outside of recession years, that’s the weakest annual job growth seen since 2003, BLS data shows.
And those meager gains were driven almost entirely by a couple of industries.
“The United States is in a jobless boom,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said in an interview with CNN. “There was almost no hiring in 2025 … we would be talking about job losses in 2025, if it weren’t for health care and social assistance.”