The U.S. economy added back the smallest number of jobs in seven months in November, as the labor market endured mounting pressure from the coronavirus pandemic while businesses wait for a vaccine to be distributed next year.
The U.S. Department of Labor released its monthly jobs report Friday morning, and here are the main results compared with Bloomberg consensus data as of Friday morning:
- Change in non-farm payrolls: plus 245,000 vs. plus 460,000 expected, and a revised plus 610,000 in October
- Unemployment rate: 6.7 percent vs. 6.7 percent expected and 6.9 percent in October
- Average Hourly Earnings month-over-month: plus 0.3 percent vs. plus 0.1 percent expected, and plus 0.1 percent in October
- Average Hourly Earnings year-over-year: plus 4.4 percent vs. plus 4.2 percent expected, and a revised plus 4.4 percent in October
During November, a plethora of new stay-at-home measures and curfews swept the nation as COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths swelled to record levels. These renewed restrictions weighed on the rate of the recovery in the labor market, which had already been slowing after a record surge in rehiring followed the initial wave of lockdowns in the spring.
Click here to read the full report from Emily McCormick at Yahoo Finance.
To that end, job gains in November sharply missed expectations. Non-farm payrolls grew by just 245,000 during the month for the smallest number since April’s record, virus-induced decline. October’s payroll gain was downwardly revised to 610,000 from the 638,000 reported earlier, while September’s gain was raised to 711,000 from 672,000.