December jobs report expected to show hiring slowdown, steady unemployment rate

[mahatmakanejeeves]

December jobs report expected to show hiring slowdown, steady unemployment rate

Josh Schafer • Reporter
Thu, January 9, 2025 at 1:10 PM EST 4 min read

The December jobs report is expected to show hiring slowed in the final month of 2024 while the unemployment rate was flat.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly jobs report is slated for release at 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday. Economists expect nonfarm payrolls to have risen by 165,000 in December while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%, according to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

In November, the US economy added just 227,000 jobs as the labor market rebounded from several weather disruptions and worker strikes that impacted prior reports. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate increased to 4.2% from 4.1% during the month.

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Here are the key numbers Wall Street will be looking at on Friday, according to data from Bloomberg:

• Nonfarm payrolls: +165,000 vs. +227,000 in November

• Unemployment rate: 4.2% vs. 4.2% previously

• Average hourly earnings, month over month: +0.3% vs. +0.4% previously

• Average hourly earnings, year over year: +4% vs. +4% previously

• Average weekly hours worked: 34.3 vs. 34.3 previously

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[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Job growth skyrocketed in December, boosting one of the strongest labor markets in US history

President Biden is the best president at creating jobs. The US has now added jobs for 48 months in a row, tying the second-longest period of employment expansion on record.

Link to tweet

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/10/economy/us-jobs-report-december-final/index.html

The US economy closed out 2024 with another month of massive job growth, adding 256,000 positions in December.

The unemployment rate dipped to 4.1% from 4.2%, wrapping up a year that marked a return to pre-pandemic norms, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday.

While the final jobs report for 2024 underscores how the US labor market has turned the corner since the pandemic, there’s plenty of uncertainty as to what 2025 could bring for the trajectory of the labor market — in part because of President-elect Donald Trump’s potential policy changes involving trade, immigration, taxes and the federal workforce.

Including December’s gains, which are subject to revision, the economy added about 2.2 million jobs in 2024, an average of 186,000 jobs per month. That’s in line with annual totals from 2017 to 2019 but marks a slowdown from the blowout gains seen during the pandemic recovery during the prior years.

“The labor market is strong, and in an aggregate sense, it really doesn’t get much better than this,” Elizabeth Crofoot, senior economist at labor analytics firm Lightcast, told CNN. “There’s very robust job growth. We have low unemployment — it ticked down in the latest month. Layoffs are low. People have jobs, and they are spending, and that continues to bolster the economy and the labor market.”

The US has now added jobs for 48 months in a row, tying the second-longest period of employment expansion on record.