U.S. employers added 263,000 jobs in November as hiring remained sturdy despite rising interest rates, high inflation and mounting recession worries.
The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%, the Labor Department said Friday.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimated that 200,000 jobs were added last month.
Payroll gains were revised down by 46,000 to 269,000 for September but up by 23,000 to 284,000 for October, lowering advances for the two months by a trivial 23,000 and leaving intact the portrait of a gradually slowing but remarkably resilient labor market.
The report likely will not be welcomed by a Federal Reserve looking for the supply of available workers to increase and job and wage growth to throttle back to cool inflation that, at 7.7%, is just modestly below a 40-year high. And that could mean continued aggressive interest rate hikes aimed at tempering price increases, a development that likely would batter stock markets that have rallied on hopes of slowing rate increases.
“Ironically, by pushing the (Fed) to raise rates further, continued strong job growth makes a near-term recession more likely,” says Gus Faucher, chief economist of PNC Financial Services Group.
Capital Economics and Nationwide, among other research firms, still expect the Fed to dial back to a half point rate increase this month after four straight three-quarter point bumps.
Labor force participation rate
In November, the share of adults working or looking for a job edged down to 62.1%,…
