Ryan Browne will make 2nd straight start for Purdue against ranked opponent, this time No. 2 Oregon

Ryan Browne's first start went so well Purdue coach Ryan Walters is giving him another chance.

Only this time, Browne will step onto the national stage, trying to snap a five-game losing streak while derailing No. 2 Oregon's Big Ten title hopes and championship dreams. He might not even do it alone. But the message from Walters is clear: Just keep it going.

“I think the way he played it (at Illinois), it would be unfair not to (start him),” Walters said. “The things we saw during the game is what we were seeing during practice. Obviously, you don’t know what it’s going to look like until you get in live situations. I’m looking forward to watching his growth and maturation this week.”

Browne threw for 297 yards and three scores while rushing for 118 yards and rallying the Boilermakers (1-5, 0-3 Big Ten) from a 21-point halftime deficit to a late lead at then-No. 23 Illinois, only to lose 50-49 in overtime.

Still, Walters couldn’t pull the plug on a second-year player who gave his team some desperately needed momentum — even if he got the chance because opening day starter Hudson Card remained in the concussion protocol. Even if Card is cleared this week, Walters has hinted he may use some sort of quarterback rotation.

Why not, given what's at stake Friday night?

The Ducks (6-0, 3-0) are in a three-way tie atop the Big Ten, reveling in their highest ranking since the end of the 2014 season, leapfrogging Ohio State after holding on for a 32-31 victory over the then-No. 2 Buckeyes.

Clearly, the Ducks are looking past Purdue.

Yes, this might be a natural spot for an upset.

Oregon enters this weekend on a seven-game winning streak and with only one loss in its previous 14 games. It has topped the 30-point mark in five straight and faces the reeling Boilermakers, who scored 46 second-half points last weekend after scoring just 44 total in the previous four games combined.

So Oregon coach Dan Lanning is guarding against human nature — making a 2,200-mile trip on a short week following one of the biggest wins in program history.

“We’re always playing Oregon and (figuring out) how we can improve and how we can get better,” Lanning said. “I think our guys are certainly aware of other situations in college football. It’s what makes this sport so great and hard, is that you've got to go out there and earn it every Saturday, every single weekend, Friday this week.”

Two weeks ago, Walters fired offensive coordinator Graham Harrell and tabbed offensive analyst Jason Simmons to call plays. Then last week, Walters did it himself.

Walters had so much fun calling plays and proved so successful over the final 30 minutes — the Boilermakers' comeback attempt fell just short when they failed on a 2-point conversion — that he’s keeping the job.

“The week of the Wisconsin game I spent learning the vocab, the rules within the offense. I didn’t feel comfortable calling it that game," Walters said. "Got to midweek last week and felt like I had the vocab down enough to know what play I wanted to get to, so I just felt like me calling the game was going to give us the best opportunity to put points on the board.”

With the college football world tuning into last week's Ohio State-Oregon game, Ducks receiver Traeshon Holden found himself watching most of the final three quarters like everyone else — on television.

The Alabama transfer was ejected early in the second quarter for spitting on an opponent. While Holden apologized in a social media post Sunday for his actions, the ramifications didn't end there. Lanning said he was handling the discipline internally.

“There’s absolutely zero place for that in our program, zero place for that in football,” Lanning said, adding he had reached out to Buckeyes coach Ryan Day. “I know Traeshon’s extremely apologetic. He’s embarrassed. He realizes how wrong he was in that moment. There is some discipline that exists there, but I’m going to leave that for us internally to handle.”

Walters has built his coaching career on defense, and facing the Ducks certainly creates some challenges.

His top priority is trying to slow down Oregon's up-tempo offense, a seemingly impossible task.

“There hasn’t been anybody yet to figure that out, right?” Walters said. “We’ll have to be strategic offensively about wanting to play with pace but also understanding that possessing the football is at premium. Then on defense, we've got to be able to get off the field.”

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Illinois wide receiver Collin Dixon catches a pass from quarterback Luke Altmyer as Purdue defensive back Dillon Thieneman defends during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in Champaign, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Purdue defensive back Nyland Green (2) tips the ball away from Illinois wide receiver Pat Bryant during the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in Champaign, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Purdue head coach Ryan Walters watches the video replay screen during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Illinois on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in Champaign, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne carries the ball during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Illinois on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in Champaign, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sluggish December hiring concluded a year of weak employment gains that have frustrated job seekers even though layoffs and unemployment have remained low.

Employers added just 50,000 jobs last month, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November, a figure also revised lower.

The data suggests that businesses are reluctant to add workers even as economic growth has picked up. Many companies hired aggressively after the pandemic and no longer need to fill more jobs. Others have held back due to widespread uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies, elevated inflation, and the spread of artificial intelligence, which could alter or even replace some jobs.

Still, economists were encouraged by the drop in the unemployment rate, which had risen in the previous four straight reports. It had also alarmed officials at the Federal Reserve, prompting three cuts to the central bank's key interest rate last year. The decline lowered the odds of another rate reduction in January, economists said.

“The labor market looks to have stabilized, but at a slower pace of employment growth,” Blerina Uruci, chief economist at T. Rowe Price, said. There is no urgency for the Fed to cut rates further, for now."

Some Federal Reserve officials are concerned that inflation remains above their target of 2% annual growth, and hasn't improved since 2024. They support keeping rates where they are to combat inflation. Others, however, are more worried that hiring has nearly ground to a halt and have supported lowering borrowing costs to spur spending and growth.

November's job gain was revised slightly lower, from 64,000 to 56,000, while October's now shows a much steeper drop, with a loss of 173,000 positions, down from previous estimates of a 105,000 decline. The government revises the jobs figures as it receives more survey responses from businesses.

The economy has now lost an average of 22,000 jobs a month in the past three months, the government said. A year ago, in December 2024, it had gained 209,000 a month. Most of those losses reflect the purge of government workers by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Nearly all the jobs added in December were in the health care and restaurant and hotel industries. Health care added 38,500 jobs, while restaurants and hotels gained 47,000. Governments — mostly at the state and local level — added 13,000.

Manufacturing, construction and retail companies all shed jobs. Retailers cut 25,000 positions, a sign that holiday hiring has been weaker than previous years. Manufacturers have shed jobs every month since April, when Trump announced sweeping tariffs intended to boost manufacturing.

Wall Street and Washington are looking closely at Friday's report as it's the first clean reading on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.

The hiring slowdown reflects more than just a reluctance by companies to add jobs. With an aging population and a sharp drop in immigration, the economy doesn't need to create as many jobs as it has in the past to keep the unemployment rate steady. As a result, a gain of 50,000 jobs is not as clear a sign of weakness as it would have been in previous years.

And layoffs are still low, a sign firms aren't rapidly cutting jobs, as typically happens in a recession. The “low-hire, low-fire” job market does mean current workers have some job security, though those without jobs can have a tougher time.

Ernesto Castro, 44, has applied for hundreds of jobs since leaving his last in May. Yet the Los Angeles resident has gotten just three initial interviews, and only one follow-up, after which he heard nothing.

With nearly a decade of experience providing customer support for software companies, Castro expected to find a new job pretty quickly as he did in 2024.

“I should be in a good position,” Castro said. “It’s been awful.”

He worries that more companies are turning to artificial intelligence to help clients learn to use new software. He hears ads from tech companies that urge companies to slash workers that provide the kind of services he has in his previous jobs. His contacts in the industry say that employees are increasingly reluctant to switch jobs amid all the uncertainty, which leaves fewer open jobs for others.

He is now looking into starting his own software company, and is also exploring project management roles.

December’s report caps a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after April's “liberation day” tariff announcement by Trump. The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of 2025. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.

Last year, the economy gained just 584,000 jobs, sharply lower than that more than 2 million added in 2024. It's the smallest annual gain since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the job market in 2020.

Subdued hiring underscores a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.

Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid, and Trump's tax cut legislation is expected to produce large tax refunds this spring. Yet economists acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.

Productivity, or output per hour worked, a measure of worker efficiency, has improved in the past three years and jumped nearly 5% in the July-September quarter. That means companies can produce more without adding jobs. Over time, it should also boost worker pay.

Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year's July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.

FILE - A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Northbrook, Ill., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)