CNN —In 2024, job growth continued to cool off, settling back into a familiar gait that was roughly in line with the pace of job creation in 2010-2019. Economists expect that job growth last month was solid — but relatively tame — at 153,000 and that the unemployment rate didn’t budge from 4.2%, according to FactSet consensus estimates. “2024 captured a very stable labor market, a labor market where supply and demand were in balance for the first time, post-pandemic,” Nela Richardson, chief economist at payroll company ADP, said Wednesday. While steady, sturdy and solid were ongoing themes in the jobs market through this past year, 2025 has the potential to be anything but. “But the longer those improvements are seen, the more and more likely a labor market rebound can happen,” she said.

---

Persons: Nela Richardson, it’s, ”, Cory Stahle, Donald Trump’s, Elise Gould, Gould, ” Stahle, Trump, Julia Pollak, Pollak, “, ” Pollak Organizations: CNN, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Industries, Economic, Institute, of Labor Statistics, ZipRecruiter, Labor, Survey, Federal Reserve Locations: headwinds, Texas, Florida, Nevada