Jobs Growth Stalls in November

The U.S. economy added 210,000 jobs in November, well below the 546,000 jobs created in October as well as consensus expectations for 500,000 jobs. The unemployment rate dropped four-tenths of a percent to 4.2%. The number of unemployed persons was down to 6.9 million in October -- still about 20% higher than the level prior to the pandemic. Average hourly earnings increased $0.08 month-to-month and are 4.8% higher year-over-year. Revisions to the two prior months added another 82,000 jobs to the economy. In November, job gains occurred in professional and business services, transportation and warehousing, construction, and manufacturing. Retail was lower. The report was a surprise to Wall Street, which was anticipating the economy would be building on the previous months' gains as the impact of the Delta variant faded. Now, in coming months, jobs growth may be suppressed by rising COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant. Stock futures are modestly higher on the news and bond yields have ticked lower.