U.S. Adds 199,000 New Jobs in December, But Badly Misses Estimates of 400,000

U.S. Adds 199,000 New Jobs in December, But Badly Misses Estimates of 400,000

Hiring slowed in December in the United States to 199,000 new jobs, the Labor Department reported on Friday morning.

The good news is that the U.S. added a record number of positions in 2021.

And, the jobless rate declined to 3.9%.

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The bad news is that economists had expected the economy to add 400,000 jobs in December.

The other concern is that the job increase for December was functionally before the impact of the Omicron variant hit the economy.

“The economy right now is in a good spot and is resilient enough to withstand this Covid surge,” said Julia Pollak, an economist at jobs website ZipRecruiter told the Wall Street Journal. “We just expect the year to bring a more moderate, sustainable pace of recovery and growth.”