EXPLAINER: 5 key takeaways from the December jobs report

By PAUL WISEMAN
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the fastest years of job creation in U.S. history stumbled at the finish line in December. Hobbled by shortages of workers and persistent threats from the coronavirus, America’s employers added just 199,000 jobs last month — the lowest monthly haul since December 2020 and only about half the total that economists had envisioned. The news was hardly all bleak. The unemployment rate dropped to a pandemic low of 3.9%. Wages rose. More people said they were employed in December compared with November. And the government revised up its estimate of job growth in October and November by a combined 141,000.