Employers in the United States added 227,000 workers to their payrolls in November, the Department of Labor said Friday, and the unemployment rate edged up to 4.2 percent.
Economists had been expecting 215,000 after storms and strikes saw the Labor Department report a much-worse-than-expected growth of just 12,000 in October. They had also forecast that the unemployment rate would rise one-tenth of a point from 4.1 percent.
The October report was revised up by 24,000, bringing the estimate up to 36,000. The September jobs number was revised up by 32,000, from a gain of 223,000 to 255,000.
Prior to the October report, the labor market has shown remarkable strength this year, defying predictions that job growth would peter out this year. The Fed began cutting interest rates in September, partly to stave off what it saw was a looming slowdown for the economy and the labor market.
The quit rate rose in October, accompanied by an increase in job openings. However, the hiring rate declined and remains well below pre-pandemic levels. Economists are divided as to whether the relatively low hiring rate indicates a hesitancy to hire by employers or simply a scarcity of workers.
