Jobs data for December will add to ongoing mixed signals in the U.S. labor market. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones expect 155,000 jobs added on the month, down from 227,000 in November, with the unemployment rate expected to have remained unchanged at 4.2%. On their own, those figures suggest a still relatively healthy jobs market. Yet the recent trend has been unfavorable: 155,000 new jobs would be among the fewest added in the pandemic era.
” On balance, however, forecasters project that hiring will begin to pick up again, albeit slowly, as overall economic activity continues at a steady clip and interest rates keep ticking down in the wake of Federal Reserve easing. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported this week that job openings had ticked higher. That, wrote Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, “hints at the possibility of better news ahead, with the potential for stronger hiring as 2025 gets underway.