Five worrying employment trends buried in the latest jobs report

A deeper look at the federal jobs data reveals trends in teen and Black unemployment, factory jobs and lopsided sector breakdowns that could spell trouble.

On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released delayed jobs data from the last two months, showing the U.S. shed 105,000 jobs in October and added 64,000 jobs in November.

But a deeper look at the employment data reveals several trends that could spell trouble for the U.S. labor market if they maintain their current trajectories.

Stepping back from the report and taking a look at 2025 so far, job growth appears to have started faltering in April, around when President Donald Trump announced his "Liberation Day" tariffs.

The year started off strong, with job creation in the first four months averaging about 122,000 per month. That's when the problems began to appear.

From May through November, job growth slowed to a pace of about 32,000 a month. Put another way, about a quarter as many positions have been created monthly since May than during the first four months of the year.