December 13, 2022

The U.S. economy added +263,000 jobs in November.

The jobs number for September was revised down by -46,000 and October was revised upwards by +23,000, for a net revision of -23,000.

Leisure and hospitality added the most jobs (+88k), followed by health care (+45k) and government (+42k). Construction gained +20,000 jobs and manufacturing gained +14,000. Retail lost -30,000 jobs and transportation and warehousing lost -15,000.

The U.S. unemployment rate for November remained unchanged at 3.7%.

The labor participation rate declined to 62.1%, and remains noticeably below pre-Covid levels. The exit of so many people from the workforce has the effect of lowering the measured unemployment rate.

Many of the people who dropped out the workforce during Covid were older. The employment-to-population ratio among prime working-age people has been steadily rising back to pre-Covid highs. However, in recent months, it has also seen small decline back to 79.7%.

Average hourly wages rose by +0.6% m/m in November, up +5.1% from a year ago. However, with inflation running at +7.1% y/y, this represents a decline in average real wages.