Name: U.S. unemployment rate declines, but payrolls fall short of forecasts
Uploaded: 2026-01-09T17:28:18.359Z
Duration: 1 min 15 s
Description: U.S. job growth fell below expectations in December, with nonfarm payrolls increasing by 50,000 last month after downward revisions to the prior two months, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data out Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 4.4%.

U.S. job growth fell below expectations in December, with nonfarm payrolls increasing by 50,000 last month after downward revisions to the prior two months, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data out Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 4.4%.

Washington

The U.S. labor market saw the unemployment rate drop to 4.4% in December, down from 4.6% the previous month, according to new data. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 50,000, but this figure was offset by downward revisions to October and November, resulting in a net decline of 26,000 jobs over the past three months.

Private payroll gains were weaker than expected, rising by only 37,000, while manufacturing jobs fell by 8,000. The labor force participation rate stood at 62.4%, and average hourly earnings grew by 0.3% for the month and 3.8% year-over-year. Despite the drop in unemployment, analysts suggest this is unlikely to prompt a January interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve.

U.S. unemployment rate declines, but payrolls fall short of forecasts

Fifty thousand is the change in nonfarm payrolls with a net revision to October and November of a negative seventy six thousand. So over the three months we're down by twenty six thousand change in pirate private payrolls. Thirty seven thousand manufacturing payrolls were down eight thousand. The private payrolls is only half of what was forecast. So this is a bit of a rebound in the government sector. It seems the unemployment rate four point four percent. It was four point six last month. Well basically for November we'll call it. And the feeling was that that might round down to four or five because government workers who misclassified themselves as unemployed would fall out. But we've gone down to four for labor force participation rate 62 point four. We'll look into the reasons for the drop in unemployment and see if it fits into the so-called good news categories. Average hourly earnings up three tenths for the month and for the year. Three point eight percent. It was three and a half percent the last month. So the president gets something out of that. But a four point four percent unemployment rate on the face of it looks like he's not going to get any kind of January rate cut from the Fed.

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