U.S. employers added a disappointing 155,000 jobs in November as hiring slowed amid worker shortages, the country’s trade fight with China and wild stock market swings.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at a near half century low of 3.7 percent, the Labor Department said Friday.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimated that 199,000 jobs were added last month.
Many analysts expected hiring to slow in November after robust job gains of well over 200,000 the prior month. That total was likely inflated by a rebound in the Carolinas after Hurricane Florence idled workers and curtailed payrolls in September.
Other crosscurrents were also at work last month. Winter storms in the Northeast and Midwest likely reduced employment by about 20,000, Goldman Sachs estimated. Meanwhile, Capital Economics expected a modest bounce-back in job growth in the Florida panhandle after Hurricane Michael tempered October advances but the research firm reckoned the bump would be offset by the effects of the California wildfires.
More broadly, monthly job increases have been surprisingly strong this year, averaging more than 200,000, despite a historically low unemployment rate that’s leading to widespread worker shortages.
Some economists expect the brisk pace to slow. The 10 percent tariff the Trump administration slapped on $250 billion in Chinese imports has dinged business confidence and the recent truce between the two nations came after Labor’s November jobs survey.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/12/07/jobs-report-november-2018/2235084002/
The unemployment rate was unchanged at a near half century low of 3.7 percent, the Labor Department said Friday.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimated that 199,000 jobs were added last month.
Many analysts expected hiring to slow in November after robust job gains of well over 200,000 the prior month. That total was likely inflated by a rebound in the Carolinas after Hurricane Florence idled workers and curtailed payrolls in September.
Other crosscurrents were also at work last month. Winter storms in the Northeast and Midwest likely reduced employment by about 20,000, Goldman Sachs estimated. Meanwhile, Capital Economics expected a modest bounce-back in job growth in the Florida panhandle after Hurricane Michael tempered October advances but the research firm reckoned the bump would be offset by the effects of the California wildfires.
More broadly, monthly job increases have been surprisingly strong this year, averaging more than 200,000, despite a historically low unemployment rate that’s leading to widespread worker shortages.
Some economists expect the brisk pace to slow. The 10 percent tariff the Trump administration slapped on $250 billion in Chinese imports has dinged business confidence and the recent truce between the two nations came after Labor’s November jobs survey.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/12/07/jobs-report-november-2018/2235084002/
