Jobs disappoint in December, but unemployment falls to 3.9%

The US economy added 199,000 jobs in December, the Labor Department reported Friday. That was the fewest jobs added in any month of 2021.

That was a major disappointment: Economists had forecast jobs growth of double that number.

So how could forecasts be so off again?

"We just have to acknowledge that this is still such an unusual time. In the best of times it's hard to tell," said Sarah House, economist at Wells Fargo.

A lot of the models that economists use aren't adapted to capture the labor shortage, for example, she told CNN Business.