U.S. economy adds 211000 jobs

The US economy pumped out 211,000 new jobs last month, and the previous two months were significantly better than previous estimates, the Labor Department reported.

“The message from November’s jobs is clear: The U.S. labor market is unambiguously strengthening”, said Neil Dutta, head of U.S. economics at Renaissance Macro Research.

And she has cited the labor market’s cumulative progress in recent years, with the unemployment rate down to 5% from 10% in 2009, and employers adding an average of more than 200,000 jobs a month in 2015.

The civilian labor force participation rate was at 62.5 percent and changed little in November, the Labor Department said. Hiring was revised higher in October and September by a combined 35,000 jobs. On Friday, Dec. 4, 2015, the government’s jobs report will offer some clues about whether the modest pay gains will continue. Average monthly job creation for this year so far is now 210,000, substantially less than the average for 2014 of 260,000.

The November employment report was “more than enough to seal the deal” for a rate increase in December, Pantheon Macroeconomics Chief Economist Ian Shepherdson said. Global money is flowing back into the dollar amid expectations of a US rate hike, which could strengthen the greenback further. More Americans began looking for jobs in November, and most found them.

“A significant number of individuals now classified as out of the labor force would find and accept jobs in an even stronger labor market”, she said.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.2% after October’s 0.4% gain.

The employment trends have eased fears that economic growth was beginning to stall and nearly guarantee that the Fed will raise interest rates later this month for the first time since June 2006, according to Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics, an economic-forecasting firm near Cleveland.

Janet Yellen, the chairwoman on the central bank, indicated the increase was likely to be agreed on at the December meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee.

People who were long-term unemployed – 2.1 million Americans who’ve been 27 weeks or more without work despite efforts to find a job – represented 25.7 percent of the unemployed.

Some economists point to the lagging pay as evidence that the job market isn’t as healthy as the low unemployment rate would suggest.

“I would like to see rates raised sooner rather than later”, he told a conference of economists and journalists at the Philadelphia Fed. November job gains occurred in general merchandise stores (+12,000) and motor vehicle and parts dealers (+9,000). Factory employment has declined in three of the last four months.

The jobless rate last month was 5%, near its lowest level since the first half of 2008.