The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that U.S. employers added 181,000 jobs last year, far fewer than the 1.46 million jobs that were added in 2024.
The U.S. economy experienced almost zero job growth in 2025, according to revised federal data. On a more encouraging note: Hiring has picked up in 2026.
Preliminary data had indicated that the U.S. economy added 584,000 jobs last year. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised that number after it received additional state data and found that the labor market had added 181,000 jobs in all of 2025.
This is far fewer than the 1.46 million jobs that were added in 2024.
Cynicism is warranted. If you also look at inflation/CPI, it held pretty firmly at 2.7% for the year. That puts a 3.3-3.4% increase in salaries and benefits in a bit more perspective. I’m not even sure that 2.7% figure is very realistic. The way they measure CPI is pretty outdated. There are a lot of services we consider necessary now that aren’t covered, and those things have been going up a lot in recent years. Just as an example, my cell carrier bill went up 14% last year. I’m looking at other options, but it’s just one example of a service provider that either increased prices or watered down their product to try and squeeze more profit out of us in recent years.