The good news is the retail sector added 30,700 jobs and construction payrolls increased by 46,000 last month.
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In its November 2015 Employment Situation report, released Friday, the Labor Department also upwardly revised its employment figures for September and October, saying 35,000 more jobs were created than initially estimated.
The unemployment rate held at a 7-1/2-year low of 5 percent, even as people returned to the labor force in a sign of confidence in the jobs market.
FEDERAL Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen, speaking the day before a key employment report, said on Thursday the U.S. economy needed to add fewer than 100,000 jobs a month to cover new entrants to the workforce, setting an implicit floor for the jobs growth policymakers want to see. September’s gain was revised up to 145,000 from 137,000.
That comes despite a strong contraction in the mining industry, due to the plunge in oil prices, where jobs continue to bleed, down 123,000 since December.
Auto sales, for example, jumped to a 14-year high in November, boosted in part by Black Friday deals offered throughout the month.
One analyst on Wall Street said the jobs report was the green light for the Federal Reserve to proceed.
Low PMI presents concerns about economic growth, as it demonstrates a decline in new orders, production, and supply deliveries.
Despite the strong hiring, the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5%, reflecting an expansion in the labor force as more Americans came off the sidelines and began searching for jobs. The Fed’s rate hike would be the first in almost a decade, and the first move in policy since it lowered rates to the zero-bound range during the 2008-2009 financial crisis that devastated the US and world economy.
Friday’s government report says job gains were seen in construction, professional services, and health care. That would lower the year-on-year reading to 2.3 percent from 2.5 percent. Although a 0.25-percentage point increase in mid-December would still leave the Fed’s short-term target rate in stimulative territory, the central bank might not have much leeway beyond that.
And job gains were broad-based across the economy in November. Most economists have forecast that it will grow at a still relatively subpar 2.5 percent this year, only slightly above its average pace since the recession officially ended in mid-2009.
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UniCredit’s chief economist Harm Bandholz believes that the latest unemployment data should dispel any doubts about the incoming rate hike later this month. Over the past three months, the USA has generated a healthy average of 218,000 jobs.
