U.S. Employers Added 50,000 Jobs in December as Unemployment Fell to 4.4%

U.S. employers added 50,000 jobs in December, and the unemployment rate edged down to 4.4%, the Labor Department reported Friday. The gain was close to a downwardly revised 56,000 jobs in November but below what forecasters had expected: Fox 7 Austin, citing economists polled by LSEG, put the forecast at 60,000, while Business Insider cited an expectation of 70,000.

The jobless rate fell from 4.5% in November, itself revised down from an initially reported 4.6%, the highest since September 2021. Fox 7 reported it was the first monthly decline in the rate since June. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said about 7.5 million people were unemployed and called both the payroll change and the unemployment rate little changed over the month.

Revisions took away some of the earlier strength. October’s payroll change was revised down by 68,000, to a loss of 173,000, and November’s was revised down by 8,000. Together, the two months now show 76,000 fewer jobs than first reported, according to the BLS. Business Insider noted that October’s drop largely reflected federal workers who took deferred resignation and left payrolls.

For all of 2025, payrolls rose by 584,000, an average of 49,000 a month, compared with about 2 million in 2024, the BLS said. Fox 7 called that the smallest annual gain since 2020. Growth was uneven: the first quarter averaged about 111,000 jobs a month, and the three months ending in August averaged only 11,000, Fox reported.

Within December, health care added 21,000 jobs and social assistance 17,000, the BLS said. Restaurants and bars added 27,000 jobs by the BLS count, while Business Insider’s figure for the broader leisure and hospitality category was 47,000. Retail shed 25,000 jobs, which Fox described as a sign that holiday hiring was weaker than in previous years. Manufacturing has shed jobs every month since April, according to Fox.

Average hourly earnings rose 12 cents, or 0.3%, to $37.02, and are up 3.8% from a year earlier, the BLS reported. Labor force participation slipped to 62.4% from 62.5%, Business Insider said.

Economists described a labor market that has stopped deteriorating without regaining momentum. Blerina Uruci of T. Rowe Price said it “looks to have stabilized, but at a slower pace of employment growth,” and Ellen Zentner of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management said it “is no longer working in favor of jobseekers,” according to Fox 7. Jed Kolko of the Peterson Institute argued that artificial intelligence and administration policy do not fully explain the slowdown, because, as he put it, hiring “has been very low since 2024, and has flattened out,” Business Insider reported.

The report bears on the Federal Reserve. Fox reported that some Fed officials worry inflation remains above the 2% target and want rates held, while others are more concerned that hiring has nearly stalled. After the report, the CME FedWatch tool showed a 95% chance of no rate move at the Fed’s late-January meeting, Business Insider said.

The next major data point is the consumer price index, due Jan. 13.