U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by only 245,000 in November, remaining below the expected 440,000, and October’s 610,000 gains, according to CNBC. The unemployment rate met expectations despite falling from 6.9% in October to 6.7% in November.
- Most job gains came from transportation and warehousing, which rose by 145,000 due to a rise in couriers and messengers, warehousing, and storage.
- Professional and business services added 60,000 while health care rose by 46,000
- The hospitality industry added only 31,000, while retail lost 35,000 jobs, a potentially troubling sign heading into the holiday shopping season.
- Construction and manufacturing each added 27,000 jobs for the month, while financial activities rose 15,000.
- Retail fell by 550,000 employees from February.
- Electronics and appliance stores were down by 11,000 while health and personal-care stores cut 8,000.
- General merchandise stores declined by 21,000, while sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores fell by 12,000.
- Government hiring fell by 99,000, the third straight month, due to the loss of Census workers hired for the 2020 count.
- Overall, the economy recovered 12.3 million of the 22 million jobs lost in the first two months of the crisis.
- As of November, there were 10.7 million Americans considered unemployed, compared with 5.8 million in February.
- The total of permanent job losers remained at 3.7 million, up 2.5 million from February.
- At the pace added in November, the economy would not be back to pre-pandemic employment levels until 2024- Daniel Zhao, senior economist at job placement site Glassdoor.
U.S. stocks are gaining as the dollar loses. SPY is up 0.64%, QQQ: NASDAQ is up 0.40%, EURUSD is up 0.04%
