U.S. employment rolls grew by 227,000 new positions in November, according to a new federal report released Friday, a marked recovery from dismal October jobs numbers that were undermined by two major storms and a strike by Boeing machinists that saw over 30,000 workers walk off the job.
The annual unemployment rate also creeped up in November, rising to 4.2% from October’s 4.1%, while the group of unemployed workers numbered 7.1 million last month. A year ago, the U.S. unemployment rate came in at 3.7% with 6.3 million unemployed.
Employment sectors with the biggest November job gains include health care, leisure and hospitality, and government which added 54,000, 53,000 and 33,000 new positions, respectively, according to Friday’s Employment Situation Summary from the U.S. Labor Department.
The latest Utah data shows unemployment across the state clocked in at 3.5% in October with employers adding 32,900 jobs for the month.
Average hourly earnings for U.S. workers rose 0.4% on a monthly basis to $35.61 in November and are up 4% over the last 12 months.
While October’s job count came in at a measly 36,000 positions, a reading skewed by temporary job losses wrought by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the 33,000 striking Boeing employees who returned to work on Nov. 5, the average monthly job growth over the past 12 months now stands at 186,000.
Industry watchers say the new data released Friday likely bolsters chances for another interest rate reduction by the Federal Reserve when the monetary body holds its final policy meeting for the year later this month.
“Data this morning was a Thanksgiving buffet with payrolls spot on, revisions positive, but unemployment ticking higher despite the participation rate falling,” Lindsay Rosner, head of multi-service investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, told CNBC. “This print doesn’t kill the holiday spirit and the Fed remains on track to deliver a cut in December.”
What will the Fed do next?
The latest personal consumption expenditures report from the U.S. Department of Commerce released late last month, found prices on consumer goods and services moved up 2.3% on an annual basis in October. The reading, which is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, was up 0.2% on a monthly basis, which matched the annual uptick from September’s 2.1%.
The Fed will consider that inflation data, along with Friday’s jobs report and a wide range of metrics at its next meeting, scheduled for Dec. 17-18. The monetary body has shifted its policy focus over the last few months and levied two straight reductions to its benchmark interest rate. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell recently said there is consensus among the body’s board of governors that U.S. inflation is “moving reliably” toward the target goal of 2%.
Earlier this month, the Fed followed up on its September decision to cut its intra-bank overnight lending rate by 0.5% by levying an additional 0.25% reduction and bringing the federal funds rate into the 4.5% to 4.75% range.
Before the September reduction, the first in four years, the Fed’s rate had stood at 5.25% to 5.5% since last summer and was the highest in 23 years after a series of 11 straight increases levied earlier by the monetary body in its efforts to quash inflation.
Following the Fed’s November meeting, which occurred just two days after the election, Powell was asked repeatedly to weigh in on how the U.S. economy and the Fed’s policy stance moving forward would be impacted by the outcome of the election. The Fed chairman noted no policy changes had yet been made and refused to speculate about potential future actions of President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
“In the near-term, the election will have no effects on our policy decisions,” Powell said. “Here, we don’t know what the timing and substance of any policy changes will be. We therefore don’t know what the effects on the economy will be. We don’t guess, we don’t speculate and we don’t assume.”