Nonfarm payrolls increased by 263,000 in November, the Labor Department said today. (And the October jobs total was revised upward to a gain of 284,000.) The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%. Average hourly wages rose 0.6% in November from October. That was the biggest increase since January. Wages are now up 5.1% year-over-year. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were looking for the economy to add 200,000 jobs in November and an unemployment rate of 3.7%.
All of this shows a labor market that remains in top gear when the Federal Reserve has been looking for weakness in the jobs data as a sign that higher interest rates are slowing the economy enough to reach the Fed’s inflation rate goal.
I don’t expect this data o change the Fed’s decision on December 14. After all, the U.S. central bank gets to see government economic data early and it’s likely that this stronger-than-expected November jobs report was already factored into this week’s speeches from regional Federal Reserve bank president and Fed chair Jerome Powell. All those statements pointed to a slowing of the pace of interest rate increases and a 5 basis-point increase in December after four straight 75 basis-point increases.
As of the close, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was off 0.12% and the NASDAQ Composite had dropped 0.18%.
