Jobs report recap: US added fewer jobs in December than expected, capping off a tough 2025 for job seekers

Tech Insider : Economy, Business, Style
A woman walks out of a store with a prominent

Steven Senne/AP

It's jobs day in America.

The US added 50,000 jobs in December, and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly report on the employment situation.

Economists expected to see 70,000 jobs added in the final month of 2025, and an unemployment rate of 4.5%.

19 states just raised their minimum wage. See which states pay the most.

Tech Insider : Economy, Politics, Politics
$15 minimum wage sign outside capitol
$15 minimum wage signs outside the Capitol

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Student-loan borrowers in default are set to see their paychecks garnished in early January

Tech Insider : Economy, Business
President Donald Trump
President Donald Trump's administration is resuming wage garnishment for defaulted student-loan borrowers in early January.

Doug Mills - Pool/Getty Images

AI pay gains could peak soon, but a Penn professor sees a way out

Tech Insider : Business, Economy, Politics
Humanoid robots follow technicians to learn job skills at the data collection area of an embodied AI robot innovation center in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province of China, on September 14, 2025.
Ioana Marinescu says AI's wage boost may soon peak — but smart investment could stop it from sliding.

Ni Yanqiang, Wang Jianlong/Zhejiang Daily Press Group/VCG via Getty Images

AI may lift wages — then crush them, professors say

Tech Insider : Economy, Business
Workers at the AIpai video generation platform at their office in Beijing on October 15, 2025
A new Brookings study warns that AI could raise wages now — only to crush them later as machines take over.

PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images

More student-loan borrowers are falling behind on payments — and their paychecks are at risk

Tech Insider : Economy, Business, Style
Rear view of college graduate
Defaulted student-loan borrowers are at risk of wage garnishment this summer.

Getty Images

20 CEOs who make a typical worker's yearly pay in less than a day

Tech Insider : Economy, Business
CEOs of Accenture, Apple, and Disney on top of a money collage background.
Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Disney CEO Bob Iger.

Business Wire; Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images; Tommaso Boddi/Variety via Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI

Is the vibecession about to end?

Tech Insider : Economy, Economy, Business
now hiring
A 'now hiring' sign is viewed in the window of a fast food restaurant on August 7, 2012 in New York City.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Washington, DC, is the best place in the US for pay and good jobs. See the other top states.

Tech Insider : Economy
Factory workers and UAW union members form a picket line outside the Ford Motor Co. Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, Kentucky.
Factory workers and UAW union members form a picket line outside the Ford Motor Co. Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, Kentucky.

Luke Sharrett/Getty Images

A Gen X dad who drives from Alabama to South Carolina every week for work explains why it's worth it for his career — despite the time away from family

Tech Insider : Economy, Economy
Jae Kim
Jae Kim commutes 350 miles every week from Alabama to South Carolina for work.

Courtesy of Jae Kim

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