The U.S. economy added 112,000 new jobs in November, which is about half what experts had expected.
Friday's closely watched report from the U.S. Labor Department also said the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 5.4 percent.
Analysts said high oil prices and disappointing holiday sales have made companies reluctant to take on new workers.
Economists say it takes the creation of between 100,000 and 150,000 new jobs each month to employ new entrants into the U.S. workforce every month.
Some information for this report provided by AFP, AP and Bloomberg.
