The December 2025 Jobs Report & November 2025 JOLTS: The Current U.S. Employment Situation

The BLS December 2025 jobs report revealed that 50,000 jobs were added last month, not too far off from economists’ expectations of 55,000. The unemployment rate decreased to 4.4% and the number of unemployed persons decreased to 7.5 million.

The November 2025 JOLTS, released January 7, reported 7.1 million job openings. The last time job openings were below 7.2 million was September 2024. Hires decreased to 5.1 million and total separations remained essentially unchanged at 5.1 million compared to October.

Of note from the JOLTS’ industry-specific data, job openings decreased in accommodation and food services by 148,000 and in transportation, warehousing, and utilities by 108,000. Job openings increased in retail trade by 121,000 and in construction by 90,000.

Additional highlights from the Employment Situation Summary and JOLTS include the following:

• The quits rate ticked back up to 2.0% and the hires rate decreased slightly to 3.2%.
• Leisure and hospitality led the way in quits with an increase of 211,000, while professional and business services had the most significant increase in layoffs and discharges (57,000).
• Change in total nonfarm payroll employment for October and November were both revised down by a combined 76,000 jobs.
• The BLS also reported on seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for 2025; November was revised down to 4.5%, while February, May, and July were all revised up by 0.1% to 4.2%, 4.3%, and 4.3%, respectively.
• Average hourly earnings rose by $0.12 to $37.02; over the past 12 months, wages have increased by 3.8%.

How did individual industries fare last month? Leisure and hospitality saw significant job gains (47,000), along with health care and social assistance (38,500). Retail employment decreased by 25,000 and construction lost 11,000 jobs.