A long-delayed government report on Tuesday showed that the unemployment rate jumped in November to 4.6 percent, as a decline in government employment offset gains in the private sector.
The U.S. economy added 64,000 jobs in the month, the Department of Labor said, higher than the 50,000 expected. Economists had forecast an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent.
The prior month’s jobs figures, also not released until Tuesday, show a significant job loss of 105,000. The government has said it will not release a report on unemployment in October because it lacks data from a survey that the government did not conduct in October due to the shutdown.
The large decline in October was driven by a sharp contraction in federal employment. Federal government payrolls shrank by 162,000 in October. The Department of Labor said this was related to those who had accepted a deferred resignation earlier in the year coming off payrolls. In November, federal employment shrank by another 6,000. Federal payrolls are down by 271,000 since January.
Private sector employment climbed in October by 52,000 following September’s 105,000 gain. That puts the three month average of 75,000, a healthy pace for the labor market.
The labor force participation rate rose in November, suggesting that a larger share of Americans are willing to work. The rise in participation is one of the reasons the unemployment rate climbed in the month.
Read the full article here