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    From Unicorns to Zombies: Tech Start-Ups Run Out of Time and Money

    After staving off collapse by cutting costs, many young tech companies are out of options, fueling a cash bonfire.WeWork raised more than $11 billion in funding as a private company. Olive AI, a health care start-up, gathered $852 million. Convoy, a freight start-up, raised $900 million. And Veev, a home construction start-up, amassed $647 million.In the last six weeks, they all filed for bankruptcy or shut down. They are the most recent failures in a tech start-up collapse that investors say is only beginning.After staving off mass failure by cutting costs over the past two years, many once-promising tech companies are now on the verge of running out of time and money. They face a harsh reality: Investors are no longer interested in promises. Rather, venture capital firms are deciding which young companies are worth saving and urging others to shut down or sell.It has fueled an astonishing cash bonfire. In August, Hopin, a start-up that raised more than $1.6 billion and was once valued at $7.6 billion, sold its main business for just $15 million. Last month, Zeus Living, a real estate start-up that raised $150 million, said it was shutting down. Plastiq, a financial technology start-up that raised $226 million, went bankrupt in May. In September, Bird, a scooter company that raised $776 million, was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because of its low stock price. Its $7 million market capitalization is less than the value of the $22 million Miami mansion that its founder, Travis VanderZanden, bought in 2021.“As an industry we should all be braced to hear about a lot more failures,” said Jenny Lefcourt, an investor at Freestyle Capital. “The more money people got before the party ended, the longer the hangover.”Getting a full picture of the losses is difficult since private tech companies are not required to disclose when they go out of business or sell. The industry’s gloom has also been masked by a boom in companies focused on artificial intelligence, which has attracted hype and funding over the last year.But approximately 3,200 private venture-backed U.S. companies have gone out of business this year, according to data compiled for The New York Times by PitchBook, which tracks start-ups. Those companies had raised $27.2 billion in venture funding. PitchBook said the data was not comprehensive and probably undercounts the total because many companies go out of business quietly. It also excluded many of the largest failures that went public, such as WeWork, or that found buyers, like Hopin.Carta, a company that provides financial services for many Silicon Valley start-ups, said 87 of the start-ups on its platform that raised at least $10 million had shut down this year as of October, twice the number for all of 2022.This year has been “the most difficult year for start-ups in at least a decade,” Peter Walker, Carta’s head of insights, wrote on LinkedIn.Venture investors say that failure is normal and that for every company that goes out of business, there is an outsize success like Facebook or Google. But as many companies that have languished for years now show signs of collapse, investors expect the losses to be more drastic because of how much cash was invested over the last decade.From 2012 to 2022, investment in private U.S. start-ups ballooned eightfold to $344 billion. The flood of money was driven by low interest rates and successes in social media and mobile apps, propelling venture capital from a cottage financial industry that operated largely on one road in a Silicon Valley town to a formidable global asset class akin to hedge funds or private equity.During that period, venture capital investing became trendy — even 7-Eleven and “Sesame Street” launched venture funds — and the number of private “unicorn” companies worth $1 billion or more exploded from a few dozen to more than 1,000.But the advertising profits gushing from the likes of Facebook and Google proved elusive for the next wave of start-ups, which have tried untested business models like gig work, the metaverse, micromobility and cryptocurrencies.Now some companies are choosing to shut down before they run out of cash, returning what remains to investors. Others are stuck in “zombie” mode — surviving but unable to grow. They can muddle along like that for years, investors said, but will most likely struggle to raise more money.Convoy, the freight start-up that investors valued at $3.8 billion, spent the last 18 months cutting costs, laying off staff and otherwise adapting to the difficult market. It wasn’t enough.As the company’s money ran low this year, it lined up three potential buyers, all of whom backed out. Coming so close, said Dan Lewis, Convoy’s co-founder and chief executive, “was one of the hardest parts.” The company ceased operations in October. In a memo to employees, Mr. Lewis called the situation “the perfect storm.”Such port-mortem assessments, where founders announce their company is closing and reflect on lessons learned, have become common.One entrepreneur, Ishita Arora, wrote this week that she had to “confront reality” that Dayslice, her scheduling software start-up, was not attracting enough customers to satisfy investors. She returned some of the cash she had raised. Gabor Cselle, a founder of Pebble, a social media start-up, wrote last month that despite feeling that he had let the community down, trying and failing was worth it. Pebble is returning to investors a small portion of the money it had raised, Mr. Cselle said. “It felt like the right thing to do.”Amanda Peyton was surprised by the reaction to her blog post in October about the “dread and loneliness” of shutting down her payments start-up, Braid. More than 100,000 people read it, and she was flooded with messages of encouragement and gratitude from fellow entrepreneurs.Ms. Peyton said she had once felt that the opportunity and potential for growth in software was infinite. “It’s become clear that that’s not true,” she said. “The market has a ceiling.”Venture capital investors have taken to gently urging some founders to consider walking away from doomed companies, rather than waste years grinding away.“It might be better to accept reality and throw in the towel,” Elad Gil, a venture capital investor, wrote in a blog post this year. He did not respond to a request for comment.Ms. Lefcourt of Freestyle Ventures said that so far, two of her firm’s start-ups had done exactly that, returning 50 cents on the dollar to investors. “We’re trying to point out to founders, ‘Hey, you don’t want to be caught in no man’s land,’” she said.One area that is thriving? Companies in the business of failure.SimpleClosure, a start-up that helps other start-ups wind down their operations, has barely been able to keep up with demand since it opened in September, said Dori Yona, the founder. Its offerings include helping prepare legal paperwork and settling obligations to investors, vendors, customers and employees.It was sad to see so many start-ups shutting down, Mr. Yona said, but it felt special to help founders find closure — both literally and figuratively — in a difficult time. And, he added, it is all part of Silicon Valley’s circle of life.“A lot of them are already working on their next companies,” he said.Kirsten Noyes More

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    E.U. Relaxes Trade Rules on Electric Cars From Britain

    The NewsThe European Union plans to postpone strict local-content rules that would have led to costly tariffs imposed on cars traded between the bloc and Britain beginning Jan. 1.“This removes the threat of tariffs on export of E.U. electric vehicles to the U.K. and vice versa,” Maros Sefcovic, the European Union’s executive vice president, told journalists in Brussels Wednesday.The tariffs would have forced consumers in Britain and the European Union to pay more for many electric vehicles. Andrew Testa for The New York TimesWhy It Matters: Relief for carmakers that were facing tariffs.The proposal provides for a three-year delay in the trade rule, and represents a huge reprieve for many carmakers, especially those with plants in Britain. Eighty percent of cars made in Britain are exported, with 60 percent of them going to the European Union. The delay means that British electric vehicles with batteries made outside Europe will no longer face tariffs of up to 10 percent starting in three weeks.European carmakers would have faced similar hits in their sales of cars to Britain, a major market. The delay will probably be seen as a win for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s British government, which lobbied for the change along with the European car industry.Background: Europe and Britain do not make enough batteries.The rule would have made it virtually impossible for cars made in Britain with batteries from Asia to be imported tariff-free into the European Union. Neither Britain nor the Europe Union is manufacturing enough batteries for the rising number of electric vehicles expected to be produced in coming years. Batteries are the most expensive components of electric vehicles.Local origin rules are designed to discourage automakers from importing expensive parts, and to encourage local production. But this rule would have been counterproductive, the auto industry argued, by forcing consumers to pay more for many electric vehicles. Those higher prices could have opened the door for electric vehicles from outside Europe, especially China, whose makers are churning out low-cost models that have gained traction in Britain.What Happens Next: Time for the battery industry “to catch up.”The proposal still needs the support of European Union governments. Early indications are that it will be welcomed by auto industry. An extension would give “the European battery industry time to catch up,” the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, a British trade group, said Wednesday in a statement.Mr. Sefcovic also said the European Union planned to provide 3 billion euros ($3.25 billion) to encourage local manufacturing of batteries. More

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    Bank of England warns that higher rates ‘have yet to come through’ to an already weak economy

    The Bank of England hiked interest rates by more than 500 basis points between December 2021 and August 2023 in a bid to combat soaring inflation.
    “The full effect of higher interest rates has yet to come through, posing ongoing challenges to households, businesses and governments,” the Financial Policy Committee said.

    A member of the public walks through heavy rain near the Bank of England in May 2023.
    Dan Kitwood | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    LONDON — The Bank of England on Wednesday warned that although household finances are faring better than expected, higher borrowing costs have yet to fully feed through to the economy.
    In its half-yearly Financial Stability Report, the central bank noted that “the overall risk environment remains challenging” amid a sluggish domestic economy, further risks to global growth and inflation and heightened geopolitical tensions.

    The Bank of England hiked interest rates by more than 500 basis points between December 2021 and August 2023, taking its main rate to a 15-year high in a bid to combat soaring inflation. Its Financial Policy Committee highlighted in the report that long-term interest rates in both the U.K. and the U.S. are now around their pre-2008 levels.
    “The full effect of higher interest rates has yet to come through, posing ongoing challenges to households, businesses and governments, which could be amplified by vulnerabilities in the system of market-based finance,” the FPC said.
    “So far, and while the FPC continues to monitor developments, U.K. borrowers and the financial system have been broadly resilient to the impact of higher and more volatile interest rates.”

    Since its last FSR in July, household income growth has been greater than expected, the FPC noted, which has reduced the share of households experiencing high cost-of-living adjusted debt-servicing ratios. Meanwhile, a lower expected path for the Bank of England’s main interest rate has reduced the extent to which that share is likely to rise.
    “Nevertheless, household finances remain stretched by increased living costs and higher interest rates, some of which has yet to be reflected in higher mortgage repayments,” the FPC said.

    “Arrears for secured and unsecured credit remain low but are rising as the impact of higher repayments is felt by borrowers.”
    Companies’ ability to service their debt has improved on the back of robust earnings growth, and the FPC expects the corporate sector to remain largely resilient to the impact of higher rates and weaker economic activity.
    “But the full impact of higher financing costs has not yet passed through to all corporate borrowers, and will be felt unevenly, with some smaller or highly leveraged UK firms likely to remain under pressure,” the FPC added.
    “Corporate insolvency rates have risen further but remain low.” More

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    Private payrolls increased by 103,000 in November, below expectations, ADP says

    Private payrolls grew by 103,000 workers in November, below the downwardly revised 106,000 in October and the 128,000 Dow Jones estimate.
    After leading job creation for most of the period since Covid hit in early 2020, leisure and hospitality recorded a loss of 7,000 jobs.
    Services-related industries provided all the job gains for the month, as goods-producers saw a net loss of 14,000.

    A postal worker wearing a Santa hat, sorts through mail and packages during a media tour hosted by the US Postal Service at the Los Angeles Processing and Distribution Center, the largest in the country, equivalent to 29 football fields, on November 30, 2023. 
    Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images

    Private sector job creation slowed further in November and wages showed their smallest growth in more than two years, payrolls processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.
    Companies added just 103,000 workers for the month, slightly below the downwardly revised 106,000 in October and missing the 128,000 Dow Jones estimate.

    Along with the modest job growth came a 5.6% increase in annual pay, which ADP said was the smallest gain since June 2021. Job-changers saw wage increases of 8.3%, making the premium for switching positions the lowest since ADP began tracking the data three years ago.
    After leading job creation for most of the period since Covid hit in early 2020, leisure and hospitality recorded a loss of 7,000 jobs for the month. Trade, transportation and utilities saw an increase of 55,000 positions, while education and health services added 44,000 and other services contributed 15,000.
    Services-related industries provided all the job gains for the month, as goods-producers saw a net loss of 14,000 due to declines of 15,000 in manufacturing, despite the settlement in the United Auto Workers strikes, and 4,000 in construction. Recent layoffs in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street also did not show up in the data, as both sectors posted gains on the month.
    “Restaurants and hotels were the biggest job creators during the post-pandemic recovery,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson. “But that boost is behind us, and the return to trend in leisure and hospitality suggests the economy as a whole will see more moderate hiring and wage growth in 2024.”
    Companies with between 50 and 499 employees led job creation, with an addition of 68,000. Small businesses contributed just 6,000.

    The ADP report comes two days before the more widely watched nonfarm payrolls count from the Labor Department. The two reports can differ widely, though the numbers for private payrolls were close in October as the Labor Department reported growth of 99,000, just 4,000 below the revised ADP tally.
    Including government jobs, nonfarm payrolls increased 150,000 in October and are expected to show growth of 190,000 in November, according to Dow Jones.
    Another sign that the labor market is loosening came Tuesday, when the Labor Department reported that job openings declined to 8.73 million in October, the lowest level since March 2021. More

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    U.S. consumers will soon wake up to ‘out of control’ interest on their credit cards, economist says

    Consumer spending is being financed by credit cards where interest is “over the top, out of control, off the hook right now,” economist Carl Weinberg told CNBC.
    Weinberg sees a retrenchment in spending in the new year, as debt burdens rise — though probably not enough to push the U.S. economy into a recession.
    Monica Defend, head of the Amundi Investment Institute, said she sees a coming pullback in consumer spending as sufficient to trigger a recession in the first half.

    The U.S. economy should be able to avoid a recession next year — but a sharp pullback in consumer spending is among the biggest risks of that occurrence, according to economist Carl Weinberg.
    “Consumers are just waking up to the fact that they’re financing their spending by running up their credit cards, and that the interest on those credit cards is over the top, out of control, off the hook right now,” the chief economist of High Frequency Economics told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday.

    “That’s going to lead to, I think, a retrenchment in consumer spending, as we get into the new year.”
    Weinberg’s base case assumes a slowdown in growth, rather than a recession.
    “But the risk is, and I agree it’s a nontrivial risk, that consumers get into trouble,” Weinberg said, noting figures from the New York Federal Reserve showing a rise in delinquencies on credit cards.
    “Real incomes have just started coming back again, and not by nearly enough to cover some of the increases in the debt burdens that we’re seeing. So credit to the household sector, consumer credit cards, that’s where the downside risk is. That’s where the risk to this Goldilocks forecast is, and I’m watching it.”
    A “Goldilocks” scenario is one in which an economy is growing enough to avoid a recession and a negative hit to the labor market, but not so strongly that it fuels inflation.

    A U.S. recession in the first half of next year is the base case for Monica Defend, head of the Amundi Investment Institute.
    “Financing and financial conditions, eventually, will start to bite the U.S. consumer that is progressively depleting the excess savings that have been … protected during 2023,” Defend said Wednesday on “Squawk Box Europe.”
    “Consumption will slow down, we’re seeing the labor market progressively cooling, and this is going to continue. And therefore, we do expect a technical recession in the United States first and second quarter.”
    Many strategists see the U.S. as having achieved a “soft landing” for its economy through interest rate hikes. They nevertheless remain cautious on the outlook for 2024, as they warn of the delayed and unpredictable impacts of higher rates.
    U.S. growth has stayed strong this year, as other major economies — including the euro zone and U.K. — have stagnated.
    Investment stimulus delivered by initiatives such as the Inflation Reduction Act will not be enough to overcome the slowdown in consumption, Defend said Wednesday.
    “During the pandemic, there has been substantial transfers from the government into households and, therefore, consumers. If you look at saving rates, it has been really peaking, but now is pointing south quite remarkably,” she said.
    “Because of this and the excess savings actually depleting, we don’t think that the U.S. consumer will be able to stand and to maintain the same levels it had over the last two years.” More

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    Saudi Arabia offers 30-year tax relief plan to lure regional corporate HQs

    Saudi Arabia announced a 30-year tax exemption package for foreign companies establishing their regional headquarters in the kingdom.
    The move is the latest in its aggressive campaign to attract international investment and headcount.

    Cityscape of Saudi capital Riyadh.
    Harri Jarvelainen Photography | Moment | Getty Images

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia announced a 30-year tax exemption package for foreign companies establishing their regional headquarters in the kingdom, the latest move in its aggressive campaign to attract international investment and headcount.
    “The Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance and the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority today announced 30-year tax incentive package for The Regional Headquarters (RHQ) Program, to further streamline the process for multinational companies (MNCs) to establish their RHQ in Saudi Arabia,” the Saudi state press agency wrote in a statement Tuesday.

    The offer includes a 0% corporate tax rate for 30 years, which will be applied for companies “from the day they obtained their RHQ license,” the statement read.
    The program “aims to attract MNCs to set up their RHQ in Saudi Arabia and position the Kingdom as the leading commercial, industrial and investment hub for the MENA region, by offering a range of benefits and premium support services that complement the Kingdom’s globally competitive value proposition,” the statement added.

    A controversial ultimatum

    The kingdom grabbed investor attention and sparked controversy in February 2021 when it first announced its RHQ campaign, declaring that any foreign company that did not have its regional headquarters office in Saudi Arabia by the start of 2024 would be barred from doing business with state entities.
    The news stunned investors and expat workers, many of whom saw the move as a shot at Dubai, the United Arab Emirates commercial capital that is home to the highest concentration of Middle East regional headquarters.
    In October of this year, Saudi ministers made clear that the ultimatum still held firm: Foreign companies will need to base their regional headquarters in the kingdom by Jan. 1, 2024 or be barred from lucrative government contracts.

    Many foreign investors are still skeptical of the ability of Saudi Arabia — an infamously conservative Muslim theocracy known for its highly criticized human rights record — to sufficiently attract foreign talent.
    Expats in the regional HQ hub of Dubai question the kingdom’s ability to provide sufficient quality-of-life services like international schools, ample housing, and aspects of a more Western lifestyle, such as alcohol, which is currently illegal in Saudi Arabia.
    Saudi Arabia says the RHQ program has so far licensed more than 200 companies to operate their regional head offices in the kingdom. And in an apparent response to the concerns of many expat workers that families there would struggle to find international schools for their children, “seven international K-12 schools have announced their new campuses in the Kingdom,” the Saudi Press Agency statement wrote.

    “The tax incentive gives multinational companies operating in the region yet another reason to make Saudi Arabia home to their regional headquarters, on top of other benefits such as relaxed Saudization requirements and work permits for the spouses of RHQ executives,” Saudi Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih was cited by the SPA as saying.
    The kingdom’s regional HQ drive is a part of Vision 2030, an ambitious campaign launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2016, which aims to create private sector jobs and diversify its economy away from oil as Saudi Arabia’s population — more than 60% of whom are under the age of 30 — grows. More

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    Job openings slide to 8.7 million in October, well below estimate, to lowest level since March 2021

    Job openings openings totaled 8.73 million for the month, a decline of 617,000, or 6.6%, the Labor Department reported Tuesday in its monthly JOLTS report.
    That was the lowest total since March 2021 and brought the ratio of openings to available workers down to 1.3 to 1.

    Job openings tumbled in October to their lowest in 2½ years, a sign the historically tight labor market could be loosening.
    Employment openings totaled a seasonally adjusted 8.73 million for the month, a decline of 617,000, or 6.6%, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. The number was well below the 9.4 million estimate from Dow Jones and the lowest since March 2021.

    The decline in vacancies brought the ratio of openings to available workers down to 1.3 to 1, a level that only a few months ago was around 2 to 1 and is nearly inline with the pre-pandemic level of 1.2 to 1.
    Federal Reserve policymakers watch the report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, closely for signs of labor slack. The Fed has boosted interest rates dramatically since March 2022 in an effort to slow the labor market and cool inflation, and is contemplating its next policy move.
    While job openings fell dramatically, total hires only nudged lower while layoffs and separations were modestly higher.
    Quits, which are seen as a measure of worker confidence in the ability to change jobs and find another one easily, also were little changed. The quits rate had peaked around 3% of total employment in late 2021 into early 2022, during what briefly was known as the Great Resignation as workers left their old jobs in search of positions that paid more and offered better working conditions; it since has declined to 2.3%.
    “This data certainly solidifies the Fed’s decision to keep rates unchanged while looking for signs of a pivot in the upcoming meeting next week,” said Tuan Nguyen, U.S. economist at RSM. “Besides inflation, job opening data, serving as a proxy for labor demand and wage pressure, has been the Fed’s top priority in recent times.”

    Declines in job openings were widespread by industry.
    The biggest sector decline was education and health services (-238,000), followed by financial activities (-217,000), leisure and hospitality (-136,000), and retail (-102,000).
    The JOLTS data comes just a few days ahead of the Labor Department’s nonfarm payrolls count for November. Economists expect that report to show an increase of 190,000, an uptick from October’s 150,000, according to Dow Jones.
    Fed officials have been targeting the red-hot jobs market as a specific area of concern in their battle to take inflation down from what had been a four-decade high last year. Seeing a decline in job openings likely will be welcome news to policymakers as it could mean that less labor demand could help bring the jobs market back in line from what had been a huge mismatch with supply.
    The Fed holds its two-day policy meeting next week, with markets largely expecting the Federal Open Market Committee to leave interest rates unchanged. Traders in the fed funds futures market are pricing in rate cuts to begin in March on anticipation that inflation data will continue to show progress and as the central bank tries to fend off a potential slowdown or recession ahead.
    In other economic news Tuesday, the ISM services index for November registered a reading of 52.7%, representing the share of companies reporting expansion versus contraction. The reading was nearly a full percentage point higher than October and slightly above the Dow Jones forecast for 52.4%.
    Gains in the survey came from inventory sentiment, inventories and new export orders. Employment nudged higher to 50.7% while prices edged lower to 58.3%. A reading above 50% represents growth.
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    U.S. Job Openings Dropped in October

    The News:Job openings fell considerably in October, hitting the lowest level since March 2021, the Labor Department announced on Tuesday.There were 8.7 million job openings in October, down significantly from 9.3 million in September, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. That was lower than economists’ expectations of 9.3 million openings.The rate of layoffs was little changed, as was the rate of quitting, which generally reflects workers’ confidence in their ability to find new employment.Job openings declined significantly in October, the Labor Department said.Tony Cenicola/The New York TimesWhy It Matters: The state of the labor market affects interest rate policy.The labor market is closely watched by the Federal Reserve as it mulls its interest rate policy. A cooling labor market tends to fuel predictions that the Fed will not further increase rates, which have risen to a range of 5.25 to 5.5 percent from nearly zero in March 2022.The labor market has been surprisingly resilient since the Fed started its rate increases in a campaign to tame inflation. But as the job market shows signs of cooling, so has consumer spending. Many companies told investors that in the most recent quarter customers were pulling back and spending less on products and more on services and experiences. The Fed’s preferred inflation measure confirmed that consumer spending slowed in October.At the same time, investors are increasingly hopeful that the Fed is done raising rates. Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, recently suggested in a speech that the central bank would leave rates steady if data continued to point to a cooling economy. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield fell on Tuesday, reaching its lowest point since September, as investors expected interest rates to fall in the future.A reduction in job opportunities discourages the Fed from raising rates or keeping them high too long because such a trend often foreshadows a recession. “With this evidence coming in that the labor market is cooling substantially, I think it’s raising the chances that the Fed is done with the rate hikes,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.Background: Unemployment and openings have reverted to earlier levels.Though the labor market is slowing, it remains a healthy landscape for workers. The unemployment rate ticked up in October, to nearly 4 percent, which is in line with prepandemic levels.Job openings reached a record of more than 12 million in March 2022 and have trended down since. The last time job openings hovered around nine million — where it is now — was in the spring of 2021.There are still ample opportunities for workers. The rate of hiring remained steady in October despite the decline in openings.One difference is that layoffs are lower than they were before the pandemic. That probably reflects companies’ decisions to reduce staffing by natural attrition rather than cuts.“This is perhaps the biggest sign that we still have a strong economy and labor market,” said Sonu Varghese, a strategist at Carson Group, a financial advisory firm.Though inflation has slowed significantly since the Fed started raising rates in March 2022, it remains above the central bank’s 2 percent target.The Fed’s preferred inflation measure fell to 3 percent in October from a year earlier. But without including food and fuel prices, which are volatile and less sensitive to the Fed’s policy actions, the rate was 3.5 percent.What’s next: The November jobs report comes on Friday.The November jobs report will be released on Friday by the Labor Department. Economists forecast that the unemployment rate will stay around 4 percent, with a gain of about 180,000 jobs.That report will be one of the last insights into the state of the labor market before the Fed’s next policy meeting on Dec. 12 and 13. More