Economy adds 211000 jobs; interest rate hike now expected this month

Companies and government agencies added 211,000 jobs last month while the pace of hiring in October and September was stronger than previously reported, the Labor Department said.

The increase exceeded the median forecast, which called for a 200,000 advance, according to Bloomberg. The September number moved up by 8,000, to 145,000, and the October figure improved by 27,000, to 298,000, for a total additional gain of 35,000 jobs.

Employment gains in November were broad, though manufacturing remains burdened by a strong dollar and shed 1,000 positions.

USA job growth remained solid in November, increasing the chances that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates from record lows later this month. The signal of economic health will likely spur the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at its next meeting in less than two weeks.

“As the labor markets gets tighter, the downward trend in the unemployment rate is naturally becoming more moderate, yet we still expect the rate to reach 4.5% a year from now”, Levanon said. The rate is a key gauge of the percentage of working-age Americans now employed and is also coming under close scrutiny as analysts try to determine whether large numbers of workers are still leaving the workforce each month either due to retirement or out of frustration in finding a decent job. This report held special importance because it’s the last major economic report before the Fed meets to make the decision on rates in mid-December. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was little changed at 2.31 percent, and stock index futures were up about 0.5 percent in pre-market trading, roughly the same as before the report was released.

With (Other OTC: WWTH – news) the November report, the average monthly increase in jobs over the past 12 months is 237,000, and the number of officially unemployed people has fallen by 1.1 million.

Average private sector hourly earnings increased by 4 cents to $25.25 after increasing in October by 9 cents.

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.

“Over the past 3 months, the economy has created an average of +218k jobs per months”.

“We believe the hurdle for dissuading the Fed from action at this time is extremely high”, said Michelle Girard, chief economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut.