Americans are feeling increasingly hopeless about their employment prospects, new survey data showed Thursday.

The December jobs report brought unwelcome news for many American households: the job market is cooling, and health care remains one of the few sectors still hiring — as medical costs continue to strain budgets.

(CNN) — Job opportunities didn’t shrink as expected in October, but hiring continued to stall and layoffs increased in a month when the US government was shut down and hundreds of thousands of federal workers were furloughed, according to new data ...