The job market was hotter than expected in November
- There were 199,000 US jobs added in November.
- The unemployment rate dropped as well.
The US added 199,000 jobs in November according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest employment report.
The forecast for nonfarm payroll employment growth was 180,000. November's growth beats October's growth.
October's growth was not revised. It was still a gain of 150,000 per the latest report. September's growth was revised from 297,000 to 262,000.
Employment in leisure and hospitality surged by 40,000. More specifically, food services and drinking places saw employment increase by 38,300. Retail trade saw an employment decline of about 38,000.
The end of the United Auto Workers strike also led to a bump in manufacturing employment for November.
"Employment in manufacturing rose by 28,000 in November, reflecting an increase of 30,000 in motor vehicles and parts as workers returned from a strike," the news release on Friday from BLS stated.
The US unemployment rate was expected to be 3.9% again. It fell to 3.7%.
Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab, noted some positive data outside the unemployment rate. He pointed to the uptick in the labor force participation rate and "the share of unemployed workers last month who got a job this month" did tick up too.
The labor force participation rate rose very slightly in November, from 62.7% in October to 62.8%.
Average hourly earnings were $34.10 in November, based on the new data released. That means earnings have increased by 4.0% from November 2022's $32.80. Wage growth was also 4.0% over the year in October and has broadly been moderating. Average hourly earnings also rose 0.4% month over month after earnings were $33.98.
"This is a great report," Bunker said. "I think this is exactly what you want to see to feel more comfortable about the labor market being on really stable footing."
Julia Pollak, the chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told Business Insider "one encouraging stat" in the new report was "growth in aggregate labor income."
"That's the number of private sector employees times their average weekly working hours times the hourly wage," Pollak said. "That grew rapidly in November at a rate of 9.1% annualized, or 5.3% year over year. The long run average is around 5%. So strong labor market earnings are going to put a floor under consumer spending."
There were 8.7 million US job openings in October, according to Tuesday's data release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is the lowest number since March 2021. Health care and social assistance saw a pretty big drop compared to other labor market areas, with openings falling by 236,000.
The number of quits in October was pretty much the same as September at 3.6 million. The change in the number of hires was also pretty flat; hires fell by 18,000 to about 5.9 million hires in October.
Bunker said in his Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey commentary that "the current state of the labor market suggests no further recalibration is necessary to bring the labor market back into balance." That's because he said this is already the case for the labor market.