The US added just 199,000 jobs in December, falling well short of expectations as employers battle workplace disruptions due to the highly contagious Omicron variant, the Labor Department said Friday.

Despite the lower-than-expected payrolls, the US unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent, down from 4.2 percent in November and near what the Federal Reserve considers to be maximum employment.

Economists expected the economy to add 422,000 jobs in December, according to Dow Jones. The month’s hiring totals followed a dismal November report in which the US economy added just 210,000 jobs, well below expectations.