Want a jobs report worth leaking? December\u2019s wasn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n
On Thursday night, President Donald Trump leaked a graphic<\/a> in an attempt to brag that the private sector accounted for all job growth in 2025, citing numbers that only added up when the Bureau of Labor Statistics published its normally highly protected monthly employment situation data<\/a> some 12 hours later. While the president appeared keen to portray the latest jobs report (which has a significant influence on the stock market) as a victory for his administration, the December data was, well, mid.<\/p>\n Employers reported modest gains in December, while the unemployment rate edged down slightly. And taking the entire year into account, the labor market ended 2025 in a worse spot than when it started.<\/p>\n Diving into the data. Employers added 50,000 jobs in December, and 584,000 throughout the entire year. The average monthly gain was 49,000. That\u2019s down significantly from 2024, when 2 million jobs were added, averaging to 168,000 per month.<\/p>\n And, while the private sector did account for all job gains as overall government employment declined, gains were primarily concentrated in healthcare, which employs nearly 15% of US workers.<\/p>\n \u201cPretty much all of our job gains has come from one sector of the economy,\u201d Kory Kantenga, LinkedIn\u2019s head of economics for the Americas, said, adding that healthcare workers and those in AI<\/a> \u201chave a great labor market.\u201d Everyone is \u201cfacing a very competitive labor market, their workforce confidence is low.\u201d<\/p>\n But even healthcare has seen a slowdown: It added 404,000 jobs in 2025, with monthly payroll gains averaging 34,000, well below the 56,000 reported in 2024.<\/p>\n The unemployment rate edged down slightly month over month, to 4.4% in December. But it\u2019s also increased significantly from a year ago, when jobless rates hovered between 4% and 4.2% from June 2024 through April 2025. And the number of long-term unemployed (which the BLS counts a little after 6.2 months of joblessness) rose by 397,000 year over year.<\/p>\n While the monthly numbers came in below economists\u2019 expectations of 4.5%, Kantenga said it was troubling that unemployment fell only slightly.<\/p>\n \u201cThese numbers fluctuate a lot, so we need a lot more evidence over time to say yes, this is a clear warning sign we should worry, but that did concern me, that those numbers didn\u2019t really come down that much,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Additionally, the impact of joblessness isn\u2019t being felt evenly. Youth unemployment rates, while declining month over month, were at 15.7% in December, up more than three percentage points from 12 months prior. And the unemployment rate for Black people had risen to 7.5%, up from 6.1% the year prior.<\/p>\n Quick-to-read HR news & insights<\/p>\n From recruiting and retention to company culture and the latest in HR tech, HR Brew delivers up-to-date industry news and tips to help HR pros stay nimble in today\u2019s fast-changing business environment.<\/p>\n Moreover, while the labor force participation rate remained relatively unchanged year over year, women of color aged 20+ accounted for all exits from the labor force in December. Those exits were primarily concentrated among Black women and Latinas, who also saw increases in unemployment rates; labor force participation and unemployment improved for white women.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom those numbers alone, we can see it\u2019s women of color who were leaving the labor force last month,\u201d said Jasmine Tucker, VP of research at the National Women\u2019s Law Center. She said the unemployment rate for Black women\u20147.3% in December\u2014is particularly worrying.<\/p>\n \u201cThe unemployment rate for Black women continues to climb,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cThis continued climb continues to signal bad things to come. If the overall unemployment rate was at 7.3% and had been elevated like it has been for the last couple of years, we would be like the scream emoji, freaking out, and we\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n She stressed the importance of ensuring diverse, equitable candidate pools during a period of high competition and DEI rollbacks.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cEmployers, right now, are being choosy. There\u2019s more people looking for work, and so they have a bigger applicant pool. But what it looks like is\u2026who are they hiring? They\u2019re hiring white men, white women, and they\u2019re leaving behind a lot of really talented [people],\u201d Tucker said.<\/p>\n Zoom out. While the topline numbers may look good\u2014or just okay\u2014on paper, it\u2019s critical that employers take into account the subtleties as well.<\/p>\n \u201cIt comes back to some of the nuances that I think a lot of people are missing,\u201d Tucker said.<\/p>\n