The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the jobs report for December on Friday, showing an unusual slowdown in growth for a month where consumer spending typically generates much higher numbers. Job growth increased by around 50,000, the report noted. Unemployment remained relatively unchanged from November, going from 4.5 percent in that month to 4.4 percent in December.
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Expectations heading into this week showed projections of about 73,000 new jobs being created in the United States in December. As it turns out, according to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the totals fell short of those expectations. CNBC News reported:
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 payrolls rose 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 to the forecast for 4.5%.
The improved jobless rate offers a small silver lining to an otherwise discouraging report, but even this data point needs context: When Donald Trump took office in January, the unemployment rate was 3.7%. In December, it was 4.4%.
Adding to the discouraging news, the manufacturing sector lost 8,000 jobs in December, extending a downturn that lasted much of the year.
As for the larger context, the latest report shows that the U.S. job market added 584,000 jobs in 2025, which might sound like a decent number until you compare it to recent history. In 2024, for example, a year in the Biden administration during which the incumbent president said the economy was terrible, the economy created more than 2 million jobs. A year earlier, the total was almost 2.6 million.
In fact, the job totals for 2025 were easily the worst in the United States since the Great Recession (excluding the job losses from the 2020 pandemic). In fact,
On Monday, Nov. 24, after more than 1,100 days on strike, Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh members were cheered on by supporters at a rally in downtown Pittsburgh before returning to work at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Even though strikers have returned to work, however, many issues at the center of the strike are still in legal limbo—and their fight for a fair contract is not over. In this episode of Working People, we speak with three Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh members—Bob Batz. Jr, Natalie Duleba, and Steve Mellon—about where things stand now, how their lives have changed since returning to work, and what it takes to hold the picket line for over three years.
Additional links/info:
Pittsburgh Union Progress website
Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh website, Facebook page, and Instagram
Bob Batz Jr. & Steve Mellon, Pittsburgh Union Progress, “Pittsburgh journalists vote to end country’s longest strike and notify the PG they are returning to work”
Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, “Post-Gazette strikers send company return to work offer”
Sara Scire, Nieman Lab, “What newsroom organizers learned from the years-long strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette”
Featured Music:
Jules Taylor, Working People Theme Song
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Alright. Welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and is brought to you in partnership within these Times Magazine and the Real News Network. This show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you. My name is Maximillian Alvarez, and as we reach the
Life for Zsuzsa Gyenes has become a never-ending nightmare after a Norfolk Southern “bomb train” carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in her hometown of East Palestine, OH, on Feb. 3, 2023. “When the derailment happened, my son and I [got] very sick,” Gyenes says, “we were forced to leave our home very shortly afterwards, and we had been displaced continuously for over a year and a half.” When Norfolk Southern eventually helped Gynes locate and pay for a new home, she hoped it was a chance for a fresh start—but her troubles were only just beginning.
Additional links/info:
Zsuzsa Gyenes Facebook page and fundraiser page
Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “A billion-dollar company poisoned my home and destroyed my town”
Maximillian Alvarez, Steve Mellon, & Mike Balonek, The Real News Network, “Trainwreck in ‘Trump Country’: Partisan politics hasn’t helped East Palestine, OH (DOCUMENTARY)”
Credits:
Production: Maximillian Alvarez
Post-Production: Maximillian Alvarez, David Hebden
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Zsuzsa Gyenes:
When the derailment happened, my son and I were very sick the night that it had happened, and we were forced to leave our home very shortly afterwards, and we had been displaced continuously for over a year and a half. We still don’t have any help. We know that people are still sick. We’ve known people are sick. There’s still people in town wanting to get out.
Maximillian Alvarez:
So I’m back here in East Palestine, Ohio where the Norfolk Southern train derailment and chemical disaster happened in early February, 2023. The media since then has moved on. Politicians have moved on, and just recently, Norfolk Southern itself said that
Earlier this month, Vox announced a new vertical dedicated to “growth” that’s funded entirely by the Arnold Foundation, the influence arm of billionaire former Enron energy trader and founder of energy commodity hedge fund Centaurus Energy John Arnold. Arnold has long-donated to center-liberal causes, some seemingly benign (investigative journalism) and others that are, to say the least, controversial (spy planes in poor majority-Black cities, for example). Arnold’s latest ideological—and economic—agenda is to promote so-called Abundance, a vague political movement currently fashionable among wealthy liberals that’s a constellation of conferences, think tanks, political action group, billionaire donors, and best-selling books by New York Times and Atlantic authors. Their primary ethos is “growth” through deregulation of industry. Some of the proposals are sensible (obviously not all regulations make sense and regulations can, and often are, manipulated by other capital actors). But this seed of a decent, if entirely banal, idea has predictably morphed into an all-encompassing politics of deregulation and anti-Left populism that dovetails with the political needs of Silicon Valley, and the ultrawealthy in general.
Aside from the broader ideological aims it’s worth noting that, in a direct and urgent way, the primary focus on “growth” through rapid and broad deregulation aligns neatly with the most direct and urgent needs of Silicon Valley billionaires—including Arnold, and the company whose board of directors he joined in February 2024, Meta (formerly Facebook). Arnold has discussed publicly how he was brought onto Meta’s board specifically to handle the energy crisis facing AI companies, telling Bloomberg’s David Rubenstein in August of last year:
“I think [Meta was] looking for somebody who had some energy expertise. The amount
Ashley McCullom’s quiet, small-town life “changed in an instant” on the night of Feb. 3, 2023, when a Norfolk Southern “bomb train” derailed near her home in East Palestine, OH. The derailment, followed by the disastrous decision to “vent and burn” multiple carloads of hazardous chemicals, exposed residents in East Palestine and the surrounding area to toxins that have made them sick, poisoned their homes, and changed their community forever. While Norfolk Southern, politicians, and media pundits have all moved on from the East Palestine train derailment and chemical disaster, residents like McCullom are still dealing with the toxic fallout.Additional links/info:
Maximillian Alvarez, Steve Mellon, & Mike Balonek, The Real News Network, “Trainwreck in ‘Trump Country’: Partisan politics hasn’t helped East Palestine, OH (DOCUMENTARY)”
Credits:
Production: Maximillian Alvarez
Post-Production: Maximillian Alvarez, David Hebden
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
WKYC Channel 3:
Breaking news from Columbiana County. East Palestine is now under an urgent mandatory evacuation order after a toxic train derailment
ABC News:
State of emergency in Ohio. After a train derailment and massive fire, some of the cars were carrying hazardous chemicals.
NBC News:
Some 2000 residents, nearly half of East Palestine still under evacuation orders. Visitors told to stay away.
PBS NewsHour:
For Ashley McCullum, the fear is warranted. She lived two blocks from the derailment site.
Ashley McCullom:
When I looked out, everything looked like it was on fire. The entire entire thing looked like it was going up in smoke in flames. I’m Ashley McCollum and this is my house. It’s pretty bad inside. I had multiple chemical testing done. I don’t go in without