Staffing Trends
An Overview of December 2025 Job Market
As this year comes to an end, the 2025 job market is showing clear signs of cooling while still holding steady. The December Jobs Report highlights slower hiring, modest shifts in unemployment, and easing inflation.
In this month's Labor Market in a Minute, Labor Finders CEO Jeff Burnett breaks down the key employment, inflation, and economic trends shaping the end of the year job market news. From slower job growth to shift employer behavior, here's what stood out in December 2025.
🎥 Labor Market in a Minute — December 2025 Jobs Report
Video Transcript
Hi, I'm Jeff Burnett, CEO of Labor Finders, and welcome to this month's Labor Market in a Minute for the month of December.
How many jobs were added to the economy?
Non-farm payroll employment increased by 50,000 jobs, and this was a decrease from the prior month of November, yet it was below expectations.
The prior two months were revised for October and November, and this resulted in a decrease of 76,000 jobs from what was originally reported.
Payroll employment rose by 584,000 jobs in 2025, and this was an average monthly gain of about 49,000, and this was much less than the 2 million jobs that were added during 2024, which showed an average monthly gain of about 168,000 jobs. Additionally, BLS did their monthly revision for the period of March of 2024 to March of 2025, and that resulted in a decrease of 911,000 jobs. The final revision to this benchmark is expected next month.
What is this month's unemployment rate?
The unemployment rate decreased slightly to 4.4 percent compared to the prior month of November.
What is the status of job openings?
Job openings and new hires continue to be at low levels. However, the number of job openings has risen in the last six months.
What is happening with inflation?
The Fed target rate for inflation is 2 percent. The inflation rate for the last 12 months or for the entire year of 2025 was 2.7 percent for all goods and services. This is a small decrease from the last report, and the inflation rate for 2024 was at 2.9 percent.
What is happening with interest rates?
The Fed has eight meetings scheduled for 2026, with the next meeting being at the end of January. Due to the weak jobs data, but keeping a close eye on inflation, the Fed reduced the interest rate by a quarter percent at its December meeting.
How are the tariffs and other administration policies affecting the job market?
Businesses are getting more settled in around tariffs and appear to be starting to factor this into their business decisions.
What is the status of the GDP?
GDP increased by 4.3 percent in the initial estimate for the third quarter, and this is an increase from the second quarter. An increase in consumer spending and exports offset by a decrease in imports is driving this change.
What industries are adding jobs this month?
Food services and drinking places added 27,000 jobs. Health care added 21,000. Social assistance added 17,000. And retail trade lost 25,000 jobs. And the federal government showed little change for this month. Other industries also had little or no change. And consistent with prior months, the number of layoffs has increased, but overall businesses continue to hold on to their full-time employees.
So that's it for this month's labor market in a minute. Thank you.