2025 just wrapped with a sobering jobs report: only 584,000 positions added for the entire year. That's the weakest hiring performance outside of recession territory since 2003, according to BLS data. For context, this tells you something about the broader economic slowdown. When employment growth stalls like this, you typically see tighter consumer spending, risk-off sentiment across asset classes, and capital flowing toward alternative stores of value. The timing matters here—markets digest macro data like this pretty quickly, and sustained weak employment usually precedes shifts in investment behavior across both traditional and crypto markets.