by Calculated Risk on 1/08/2026 02:16:00 PM

On Friday at 8:30 AM ET, the BLS will release the employment report for December. The consensus is for 55,000 jobs added, and for the unemployment rate to decrease to 4.5%. There were 64,000 jobs added in November, and the unemployment rate was at 4.6%.

From Goldman Sachs:

We forecast that payrolls rose 70k (vs. 55k consensus) in December and the unemployment rate fell to 4.5% (vs. 4.5% consensus). ... We expect the unemployment rate to edge down to 4.5% because the increase to 4.6% in November largely reflected the impact of furloughed federal government workers during the shutdown.
emphasis added

From BofA:

Dec NFP are likely to tick up to a stable 70k (private: 75k) print, higher than consensus expectations. Initial claims remain low and continuing claims have trended lower since Oct. Education & health jobs should remain the driver of payroll growth. Given the strength in air travel and holiday spending, we project a rise in leisure & hospitality jobs. After the u-rate jumping to 4.6% in Nov, in part due to shutdown-related distortions, we expect a decline to 4.5%. It is likely that the worst is behind us in the labor market.

• ADP Report: The ADP employment report showed 41,000 private sector jobs were added in December.  This was slightly below consensus forecasts.  However, in general, ADP hasn't been very useful in forecasting the BLS report.

• ISM Surveys: Note that the ISM indexes are diffusion indexes based on the number of firms hiring (not the number of hires).  The ISM® manufacturing employment index increased to 44.9%, up from 44.0% the previous month. This suggests manufacturing jobs lost in December. The ADP report indicated 5,000 manufacturing jobs lost in December.

The ISM® services employment index increased to 52.0%, up from 48.9%.  This suggests job gains in December.  

• Unemployment Claims: The weekly claims report showed about the same number of initial unemployment claims during the reference week at 224,000 in December compared to 222,000 in November.  This suggests about the same number of layoffs in December as in November.

• Conclusion: Over the last 6 months, employment gains averaged 17 thousand per month.  The ADP report, the ISM Surveys, and unemployment claims suggest similar gains in December compared to November.   I'll take the over for December - but still weak hiring.