Hiring bounced back after disruptions from storms and a major strike.
Job creation bounced back in November after disruptions from storms and a major strike, reinforcing a picture of modest employment expansion over the past several months.
The U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs, seasonally adjusted, the Labor Department reported on Friday. With upward revisions to September and October figures, the three-month average gain is 173,000, slightly higher than the average over the six months before that.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2 percent, from 4.1 percent in October, as fewer people were able to find work. But for those who had jobs, wages jumped more than expected and were 4 percent higher than they were a year earlier.
Unemployment rate
2
4
6
8
10
12
14%
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
4.2%
“I think that we are normalizing from a great post-pandemic labor market to a very good longer-run labor market,” said Gus Faucher, the chief economist for PNC Financial Services Group. “I don’t want to say that we’ve definitely achieved a soft landing, but certainly we think this is what a soft landing looks like.”
The public mood seems to be brightening as well, as inflation has receded while layoffs remain low. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index notched a seven-month high in the initial December reading.
Education and Health Lead Growth
Change in jobs in November 2024, by sector
Education and health
+79,000 jobs
Leisure and hospitality
+53,000
Government
+33,000
Business services
+26,000
Manufacturing
+22,000
Construction
+10,000
Retail
–28,000
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Source: Economy - nytimes.com
