Unemployment Rises to 4.6% as November Job Gain Is Modest

The unemployment rate rose to 4.6 percent in November, federal data released on Tuesday showed, while employers added 64,000 jobs. The figures were delayed by a 43-day government shutdown and include belated October data. The report said the jobless rate is the highest since September 2021.

It showed the federal government shed 168,000 jobs in October and November as workers hit by deferred resignations came off the payroll, and private-sector gains were driven largely by health care. Manufacturing lost 5,000 jobs in November, its seventh straight month of losses. Wage growth slowed to a level not seen since 2021, a broader underemployment measure rose to 8.7 percent (up a full percentage point from a year earlier), and the unemployment rate for Black workers climbed to 8.3 percent, more than two percentage points higher than at the start of the year.

Revisions to prior months reduced job totals by a combined 33,000 and put August at a loss of 26,000 positions. Analysts called the data mixed and said the shutdown may have complicated the report; “The report is a disappointment, overall,” said Beth Ann Bovino, chief economist at U.S.

Bank. The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates since September, and some economists said the report could reinforce that path; James Egelhof of BNP Paribas said he would “ultimately take the glass-half-full perspective.” Jerome H.

Key Topics

Business, U.s. Labor Market, Government Shutdown, Federal Reserve, Health Care Sector, Black Workers