Americans looking for work in 2025 faced a challenging environment. And 2026 may not be much better.
The November jobs report out Tuesday showed the unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to 4.6% — relatively low by historical standards but the highest since mid-2021. Data from the University of Michigan showed that as of November, the majority of consumers expected unemployment to rise in the year ahead.
Job growth has also been paltry — the job market lost an estimated 41,000 jobs in October and November, Tuesday’s report said — while layoffs have started to creep up. The hiring rate remains at lows seen early in the pandemic and in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
A report last month from the Indeed Hiring Lab noted that in a currently frozen labor picture, “the question won’t be whether the market thaws — it will be whether it cracks.”
Healthcare, for…
