U.S. job growth slows to five-year low as December adds 50,000 roles

U.S. employers added 50,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate fell to 4.4 percent, federal data showed, even as hiring across 2025 was the weakest in five years. Average hourly earnings rose 0.3 percent in December and 3.8 percent year over year. Health care and social assistance accounted for roughly 700,000 of last year’s job gains, and, "excluding health care and social-assistance sectors," private-sector job growth for 2025 was just over 20,000, Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macro said.

Sector results were mixed: leisure and hospitality gained 47,000 jobs and health care about 21,100, while retail lost 25,000 and manufacturing dropped about 8,000 in December and has fallen by the tens of thousands since December 2024, the data showed. Lia Taniguchi of Bullhorn said these patterns look "more a measure of demographics" in an aging society and warned that professional roles are showing "an awful lot of weakness." Professional and business services lost 9,000 jobs in December and 97,000 in 2025, and some executives have cited artificial intelligence as a reason not to hire now.

Key Topics

Business, U.s. Labor Market, December Jobs Report, Unemployment Rate, Health Care Sector, Pantheon Macro