The big gain in US hiring followed Ohio’s employment report for October, which also showed robust gains as the state added 30,800 jobs – the largest one-month jump in more than a decade.
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“The bottom end of the range of forecasts in Reuters polls on non-farm payroll figures for the coming year has been consistently trimmed lower by analysts over the past few months – just 100,000 jobs per month on average in some quarters of next year”, writes Siddharth Iyer at Reuters’ blog Macroscope.
The labour force participation rate, or the share of working-age Americans who are employed or at least looking for a job, rose to 62.5 per cent from a near 38-year low of 62.4 per cent.
November job creation increased by 211,000 in November, giving the final confirmation that the Fed will likely raise rates this month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Hiring was revised higher in October and September by a combined 35,000 jobs.
For-hire trucking gained 2,300 jobs; however, the October figure was revised to reflect a loss of 900 jobs, instead of the 400-job gain when the employment data was released November 6. The U.S. needs to create an average of 200,000 jobs a month to meet the demands of the U.S. workforce. So far this year job gains have averaged 210,000 a month. “There is absolutely nothing in this report that will keep the Fed from raising rates”, Chris Gaffney, president at EverBank World Markets in St. Louis, told Reuters.
Though wage growth slowed last month, economists say that was mostly payback for October’s outsized gains, which were driven by a calendar quirk.
Market expectations firmed for the Fed to raise the federal funds rate at its December 15-16 meeting.
The resoundingly jobs report was the definitive evidence the Fed needed.
A Fed rise could smooth the path for the Bank of England to start hiking United Kingdom interest rates some time over the next year or so. On Friday, Dec. 4, 2015, the government’s jobs report will offer some clues about whether the modest pay gains will continue.
“You have an open debate between doves and hawks as to what the pace of increases should look like”, said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in NY, referring to the divisions drawn within the Fed over readiness to tighten policy. Mining continued to decline last month, shedding 11,000 jobs, while information lost 12,000 jobs in November.
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In addition, restaurants added 31,500 positions, retailers almost 31,000.
