The U.S. economy added 199,000 jobs in December. The hiring figures came as a disappointment as economists had forecasted 422,000 new jobs.
They show that hiring remained sluggish even before the Omicron variant became widespread.
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However, the unemployment rate dropped more than expected to 3.9%. Economists had expected unemployment to inch lower by a tenth of a percentage point to 4.1%.
WATCH:
From the White House, President Biden gave his view on the state of the economy:
CNBC further reports:
Job creation was highest in leisure and hospitality, a key recovery sector, which added 53,000. Professional and business services contributed 43,000, while manufacturing added 26,000.
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The unemployment rate was a fresh pandemic-era low and near the 50-year low of 3.5% in February 2020. That decline came even though the labor force participation rate was unchanged at 61.9% amid an ongoing labor shortage in the U.S.
A more encompassing measure of unemployment that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons slid to 7.3%, down 0.4 percentage point. Though the overall jobless rates fell, unemployment for Blacks spiked during the month, rising to 7.1% from 6.5%. The rate for white women 20 years and older fell sharply, to 3.1% from 3.7%.
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“The new year is off to a rocky start,” wrote Nick Bunker, economic research director at job placement site Indeed. “These less than stellar numbers were recorded before the omicron variant started to spread significantly in the United States. Hopefully the current wave of the pandemic will lead to limited labor market damage. The labor market is still recovering, but a more sustainable comeback is only possible in a post-pandemic environment.”
