USA jobs boost may lead to interest rate rise

In November, however, payrolls rose by 211,000, the recent report reveals. And the government revised up its estimated job growth for September and October by a combined 35,000. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5 percent.

Over the past 12 months, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons are down by 0.8 percentage point and 1.1 million, respectively.

A number of working age Americans who are looking for a job or are employed increased to 62.5%.

“The economy remains strong despite slowing growth in Europe and China, a strong U.S. dollar, and tough times for the oil and gas industry”, Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at employment site Glassdoor, tells U.S. News in an email. The Fed has a dual mandate: It must act to prevent the economy from overheating, but it must also do what it can to right a job market that, by some measures, has yet to fully recover from the 2008 recession.

But earnings data remained unimpressive, eking out a 0.2% monthly gain compared with October’s 0.4% increase. “It also eliminates any fears of downside risk to growth, but provides no evidence of a significant upshift beyond the 2.2 percent average since the recovery began”.

While the strong November employment data hid some signs of naggingly persistent slack in the market, Fed Chair Janet Yellen made clear this week she believes that will slowly dry up as the economy continues to grow, and was no barrier to a rate increase. “The job market still has a lot of steam and the Fed should be comfortable raising interest rates”.

The temp penetration rate – temp jobs as a percent of total nonfarm jobs – slipped to 2.04% in November compared to 2.05% in October. “It will have to be a disaster for the Fed to delay until 2016”, said Ryan Sweet, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in Westchester, Pennsylvania.

Mining employment has declined by 123,000 since reaching a peak in December 2014.

Sarah Raminhos landed a new accounting job last month at a firm in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with a salary about 5 percent higher than her old one. Economists surveyed by CNNMoney predicted there would be 192,000 jobs added.

Progress in the labor market has played a large role in building the Fed’s confidence that the economy can withstand higher interest rates.

Durham said the fast food company is finding fewer people applying for open positions, particularly as other employers, like Walmart, have bolstered pay.