U.S. lost 140,000 jobs in December, Labor Department reports

U.S. employers cut 140,000 jobs from the economy in December, the Labor Department reported Friday in its monthly employment report. 

The report shows the domestic economy shed jobs for the first time since April, the first month after the spread of the coronavirus was declared a pandemic. 

The loss last month in non-farm jobs fell below the expectation of economists surveyed by Dow Jones who had predicted a modest gain of 50,000.

The unemployment remained constant at 6.7%. 

Since the coronavirus pandemic recovery began, the U.S. economy has recovered about 12.3  million of the 22 million jobs that were lost at the outset of the pandemic 10 months ago. 

An increase in virus case numbers in the fall and winter months resulted in many state and local lawmakers re-imposing health-safety orders, resulting in few jobs, especially the hospitality industry, which remains down 3.9 million jobs since January 2020. 

Despite the roughly 121,000 retail jobs added for the holiday shopping season, the December numbers where far below those in November, in which U.S. economy add 245,000 jobs.