The federal government will release December’s unemployment rate and payroll changes Friday morning, helping to make sense of a cooling labor market that has flashed some mixed signals this week. A Bloomberg survey of economists estimates a median gain of 70,000 jobs in the final jobs report for 2025 and an unemployment rate of 4.5% after November’s data showed an addition of 64,000 positions and jobless rate of 4.6%. The Chicago Fed, meanwhile, sees the unemployment rate holding steady. Questions are swirling about the state of the US job market as economists and workers alike grapple with a weak hiring rate and ... (full story)