Payrolls in US rise as jobless rate falls to nine-year low

“This positive jobs report is another indication that the USA economy continues to pick up steam”, said Tony Bedikian, managing director and head of global markets at Citizens Bank.

A steady job market also signals employers were willing to keep hiring in the days before and after the November 8 presidential election.

The headline USA unemployment rate came in at 4.6 percent in November, down three-tenths of a percentage point from October and its lowest level since August 2007, the Labor Department said Friday.

Non-farm payrolls increased by 178,000 jobs last month after increasing by 142,000 in October, the Labour Department had said on Friday.

“Housing supply growth continues to grind upward adding to economic growth”, Duncan said.

Incorporating revisions that lowered September and October’s tallies by 2,000 jobs total, job gains have averaged 176,000 over the past three months and 180,000 for the year so far.

Rate hit a record 4.6 percent in November. Fewer people are joining the labor force on net partly because baby boomers are retiring in droves.

One of those figures is called the U-6 rate, which has a broader definition of unemployment than the U-3 does. “The headline numbers here are okay but the underlying numbers are less rosy”. Accounting and bookkeeping services added 18,000 jobs, while health care employment rose by 28,000 and employment in construction increased by 19,000.

Trump’s victory gives that debate more urgency. Over the past three months, construction has added 59,000 jobs, largely in residential construction. “This election showed that millions of Americans don’t trust Democrats to create good jobs and opportunity, and President-elect Trump’s determination to save 1,000 jobs in IN is just a preview of his agenda of prosperity for all”. That could prove hard.

The retail sector shed 8,300 jobs in November, which could reflect a shift toward online shopping that has forced department stores such as Macy’s Inc to close several stores. More than 250,000 jobs will be lost this year due to plant closing announcements, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas.

The report paves the way for the Federal Reserve to raise short-term interest rates at its next meeting this month, said Jason Schenker, president of Prestige Economics.

The Fed raised its interest rate last December for the first time in almost a decade.

The unemployment rate is well below what monetary policymakers generally consider “full employment”, which has created concerns that inflation is imminent, though there have been only modest signs of price pressures.

Jim O’Sullivan, chief US economist at research firm High Frequency Economics, said that “the trend in employment growth remains more than strong enough to keep the unemployment rate trending down”.