Current:Home > ContactU.S. labor market is still robust with nearly 200,000 jobs created in November -Secure Growth Academy
U.S. labor market is still robust with nearly 200,000 jobs created in November
View
Date:2025-04-15 07:37:12
The labor market proved unexpectedly solid in November, with both payrolls and pay increasing — elevating hopes of a soft landing for the U.S. economy.
Nonfarm payrolls rose 199,000 last month and the unemployment rate fell to 3.7%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday. The monthly job additions exceeded expectations, which had economists polled by FactSet calling for businesses to create about 175,000 jobs. Employment growth is slowing from the average monthly gain of 240,000 over the last 12 months.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.4% last month to $34.10, an increase of 4% over the last 12 months, a key metric for workers looking to stay ahead of inflation.
"We're running out of superlatives to describe just how resilient the U.S. labor market is and has been," offered Nick Bunker, director of economic research at Indeed Hiring Lab. "The pace of jobs being added is no longer bonkers, but it is sustainable. Unemployment ticked down, alleviating any fears that the U.S. economy might soon tip into a recession," he noted in an emailed analysis.
"This was a much better than expected payroll report, more so because it puts to bed fears about a deteriorating labor market amid a rising unemployment rate over the last several months," Sonu Varghese, global macro strategist at Carson Group, said in an email.
The monthly jobs report is watched closely by the Federal Reserve, which has been raising interest rates since early 2022 in an effort to put the brakes on the economy and cool inflation. Most strategists are now forecasting that the central bank will hold rates steady at its next meeting, scheduled for December 13.
The end of strikes by autoworkers and Hollywood actors increased payrolls by 47,000 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Still, the underlying pace of payroll additions has been slowing. Stripping out that one-time boost, the 152,000 gain was roughly in line with the muted increase in October, noted Paul Ashworth, chief North American economist at Capital Economics.
Those gains including 49,000 government jobs and another 77,000 in health care. If those non-cyclical sectors were taken out of the equation, the economy added just 26,000 jobs, adding to evidence that "after a very strong third quarter, growth is slowing to a crawl in the fourth quarter," Ashworth wrote in a note to clients.
Wall Street offered a positive take on the jobs report, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average lately up more than 120 points.
- In:
- Employment
- Economy
Kate Gibson is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch in New York.
veryGood! (6443)
Related
- Trump issues order to ban transgender troops from serving openly in the military
- Digging to rescue 41 workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel in India halted after machine breaks
- Secrets You Never Knew About Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time
- Schools in Portland, Oregon, reach tentative deal with teachers union after nearly month-long strike
- 'Squid Game' without subtitles? Duolingo, Netflix encourage fans to learn Korean
- Michigan-Ohio State: Wolverines outlast Buckeyes for third win in a row against rivals
- From 'Butt Fumble' to 'Hell Mary,' Jets can't outrun own misery in another late-season collapse
- Congolese Nobel laureate kicks off presidential campaign with a promise to end violence, corruption
- A Mississippi company is sentenced for mislabeling cheap seafood as premium local fish
- The Bachelor's Ben Flajnik Is Married
Ranking
- Google unveils a quantum chip. Could it help unlock the universe's deepest secrets?
- Coming playoff expansion puts college football fans at top of Misery Index for Week 13
- A high school girls basketball team won 95-0. Winning coach says it could've been worse
- BANG YEDAM discusses solo debut with 'ONLY ONE', creative process and artistic identity.
- Angelina Jolie nearly fainted making Maria Callas movie: 'My body wasn’t strong enough'
- ‘You’ll die in this pit': Takeaways from secret recordings of Russian soldiers in Ukraine
- Beijing court begins hearings for Chinese relatives of people on Malaysia Airlines plane
- Beijing court begins hearings for Chinese relatives of people on Malaysia Airlines plane
Recommendation
Elon Musk's skyrocketing net worth: He's the first person with over $400 billion
Attackers seize an Israel-linked tanker off Yemen in a third such assault during the Israel-Hamas war
Baltimore man wins $1 million from Florida Lottery scratch-off ticket
A new Pentagon program aims to speed up decisions on what AI tech is trustworthy enough to deploy
'Survivor' 47 finale, part one recap: 2 players were sent home. Who's left in the game?
Dogs gone: Thieves break into LA pet shop, steal a dozen French bulldogs, valued at $100,000
Turned down for a loan, business owners look to family and even crowdsourcing to get money to grow
Bradley Cooper says his fascination with Leonard Bernstein, focus of new film Maestro, traces back to cartoons