Despite a disappointing jobs report, the news is still pretty good.

The December Jobs Report will be closely watched for signs that employers added more jobs at the end of 2021.

With signing bonuses, rising wages and less fear of being laid off — what’s not to like?

That sector now employs more than 200,000 more people than it did before the pandemic.

Other employment numbers have been subject to a lot of revision as well.

The not-so-good news? Inflation has eaten up most of the gains.

Between COVID, shifting policy, and “The Big Quit”, it’s hard to get a handle on how the employment picture’s changing.

The number of people who reported they had jobs surged by 1 million, pushing the jobless rate down from 5.9% in June. Last month, 261,000 people returned to the job market.

The good news? The U.S. economy created 850,000 jobs in June. The bad news? There are still 7 million fewer jobs than before the pandemic.

That burst of hiring is well above the average of the previous three months.