THE HALFAX HEIMDALL AUGUR

This Year's Job Market Is Shaping Up to Be Surprisingly Stable Halfway through the year, the labor market is flashing a virtue that proved elusive for much of 2025: stability. American hiring in 2026 hasn’t quite boomed, but it has broadly improved. The latest numbers, released Thursday by the Labor Department, were a disappointment. June’s57,000 new jobsfell well short of Wall Street forecasts. Sectors that reflect the current health of the economy, including retail and leisure and hospitality, lost jobs. Yet look beyond the monthly number, and the job market has steadily, if not spectacularly, added an average of around 92,000 jobs a month so far this year. That is a giant leap from average net losses of 8,000 a month over the second half of 2025. It isn’t a repeat of the unstoppable wave of job creation in the years just after the pandemic. But dependable monthly job creation and stronger staffing across a range of industries have made the job market much less concerning than the limp hiring seen late last year. Then there is the unemployment rate: In June, despite the lower-than-expected hiring, it actually dropped to 4.2% from 4.3%. That is good news on its surface, but t…

The jobs picture still looks muddy, even with surprisingly ... - CNBC January job gains were better than anything the U.S. economy saw in 2025 but not still enough to sound an all-clear on what has otherwise been a stagnant labor market. With a gain of130,000 nonfarm payrollsand the unemployment rate slipping to 4.3%, the lowest since August, the numbers indicated that hiring is at least hanging in there while layoffs appear contained. However,beneath the hoodthere were some trouble spots: A continued concentration in just a few fields where hiring is happening; revisions that meant virtually no gains in the second half of 2025, and questions over what happens from here as companies contend with a high level of uncertainty. "I would anticipate that for the rest of the year, job growth is going to be quite subdued," said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon. "Whether it's as subdued as 2025 ... is still an open question. But I would not expect job growth to be higher than 50,000 for the remainder of 2026." Indeed, revisions the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday put job gains last year at just 15,000 a month. The last six months of the year produced a net lo…

US job growth falters, testing Trump’s Republicans ahead of midterm election The United States posted weaker-than-expected job growth in June as new data showed the labour market is facing headwinds ahead of the testing midterm election for President Donald Trump’s Republicans. Total nonfarm payroll employment grew by 57,000 and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.2 per cent, the US Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) said in a statement on Thursday. After months of seesawing growth and contraction, the US job market posted strong gains in the last three months, but...

Jobs report December 2025: - CNBC The U.S. labor market ended 2025 on a soft note, with job creation in December less than expected, according to a report Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nonfarm payrollsrose a seasonally adjusted 50,000 for the month, lower than the downwardly revised 56,000 in November and short of the Dow Jones estimate for 73,000. At the same time, the unemployment rate fell to 4.4%, compared with the forecast for 4.5%. A more encompassing measure that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons dropped to 8.4%, down 0.3 percentage point from November. The household survey, which is used to calculate the unemployment figures, showed an increase of 232,000 while the labor force participation rate edged lower to 62.4%. The report presented a muddy view of the labor market, with companies reporting a low level of hiring but households showing employment gains. Stock market futuresgained following the release while Treasury yields were stable. In addition, revisions brought totals down for the prior months. The November total saw a slight downward revision of 8,000 to the payrolls number, while October's loss…

U.S. Economy Adds Less Than Half The Jobs Analysts Expected In June ... Nonfarm payrolls for June increased by much less than expected in June. Getty Images Nonfarm payrolls for June increased by much less than expected in June, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Concretely, nonfarm payrolls increased by 57,000, less than half the 115,000 expected by the Dow Jones consensus forecast. However, the unemployment rate dropped to 4.2%, slightly ahead of the 4.1% than the same period a year ago. CNBC explained that the drop was explained by a lower labor force participation rate, which was 0.3 percentage points lower and clocked in at 61.5%, the lowest since March 2021. Leisure and hospitality reported 61,000 fewer jobs, with the BLS said was a result of of lower seasonal hiring even despite the World Cup taking place in the country. In contrast, professional and business services gained the most jobs for the month, climbing by 36,000. Social assistance increased by 25,000 and health care by 22,000. Read more US Job Openings Hit Two-Year High, but Americans Are Finding It Harder to Get Hired Companies Cut Jobs for AI Efficiency Gains. Many Are Now Bringing Them B…

'October's pace of job cutting was much higher than average ... Layoffs have hit the highest level for the month of October since 2003, and hiring has slowed to the lowest point in 14 years as companies look to cut costs and make room for AI integration, according to a new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Recommended Video The monthly report , published Thursday, lays out a gloomy job market in which U.S.-based employers announced 153,074 job cuts in October. This is up 175% from last October, when 55,597 cuts were announced, and a 183% increase from last month’s 54,064 job cuts announced, the report said. “October’s pace of job cutting was much higher than average for the month. Some industries are correcting after the hiring boom of the pandemic, but this comes as AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes,” said Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer of Challenger. “Those laid off now are finding it harder to quickly secure new roles, which could further loosen the labor market.” But as AI adoption disrupts the workforce, the “DOGE impact” remains the leading cause for layoffs this year, according t…

US job growth slowed more than expected in June - CNN A job seeker meets with a recruiter at a job fair on June 30, 2026, in Carson, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Economy Job market Pay & income See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link Threads Link Copied! Follow The US economy added far fewer jobs than expected last month, with just 57,000 added in June, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Thursday. June’s tally is a cooldown from May’s gains of 129,000 jobs and came in well below economists’ expectations for 100,000 jobs to be added. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% from 4.3%. Thursday’s report showed that leisure and hospitality businesses shed 61,000 jobs last month, reflecting weaker-than-usual seasonal hiring, the BLS noted in the report. That sector — which is closely watched as a gauge for consumer health, since it can be tied to discretionary spending — was expected to be a wild card: Economists were unsure as to how much World Cup -related events lifted hiring in May and June. The labor market has been contending with a range of headwinds, including an aging demographic, the rapid adoption of AI, and a recent spike in oil prices from the…

Jobs report June 2026: - CNBC The U.S. economy saw job creation cool sharply heading into the summer, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. Nonfarm payrollsfor June increased by a seasonally adjusted 57,000 for the month, slower than the downwardly revised 129,000 added in May and worse than the 115,000 Dow Jones consensus forecast. The unemployment rate, however, dropped to 4.2%, slightly ahead of the 4.1% where it was a year ago. The move lower was largely due to a slump in the labor force participation rate, which dropped 0.3 percentage point to 61.5%, the lowest since March 2021. Household employment plummeted during the month, with 507,000 fewer people reported at work. A broader unemployment measure that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons declined by 0.2 percentage point to 7.9%. Prior months also saw significant downward revisions — the May total, which had been much stronger than economists had anticipated, was cut by 43,000, while April's figure came down 31,000 to 148,000 as the report showed labor market growth significantly slower than previously thought. Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% for the month an…

Employers have cut 1.1 million jobs this year. Here's what's ... - CBS News Employers have cut more than 1.1 million jobs through November, the most since 2020, when companies laid off 2.2 million workers as the pandemic was slamming the U.S. economy, according to a new report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The layoffs represent a 54% increase from the same period a year earlier, when employers cut 761,358 jobs, according to the firm. It's also only the sixth time since 1993 that job cuts during the first 11 months of the year have risen above 1.1 million. Here's what is driving the increase in 2025 layoffs, according to Challenger. Tech is driving the surge in job cuts The technology sector is leading this year's job cuts, laying off 153,536 workers through November, according to Challenger. That's a 17% jump from the 130,701 layoffs tech firms announced by the same point in 2024. Amazon is among the tech firms that have announced substantial workforce reductions . In October, the company said it would cut 14,000 jobs as it leans on AI tools to boost efficiency. The retail sector reduced its workforce by 91,954 jobs through November, as consumers grapple wit…

US jobless aid filings fell to 215,000 last week as layoffs remain low Fewer Americans applied for jobless aid last week as layoffs remain low despite economic headwinds that are creating uncertainty for businesses WASHINGTON --Fewer Americans applied for jobless aid last week as layoffs remain low despite economic headwinds that are creating uncertainty for businesses. U.S. applications for unemployment benefits in the week ending June 20 fell by 12,000 to 215,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 225,000 new applications forecast by analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet. Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market. Despite concerns that the war in Iran would trip up an already wobbly labor market, hiring has picked up in recent months following a miserable 2025 that saw fewer than 200,000 job gains. For comparison, about 1.5 million jobs were added in 2024. U.S. employers delivered asurprising 172,000 new jobsin May and the economy is averaging 188,000 job gains in the three months since the Iran war began in late February. That…