The US labor market ground to a halt in 2025. The risk in 2026 is that it ‘cracks.’

It was a tough year to be looking for work — and the job market is not expected to get much better.

Americans looking for work in 2025 have 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. Meanwhile, recent 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.

Emma Ockerman | Yahoo Finance

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