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The US economy added 227,000 jobs in November, a sharp rebound after the previous month’s total was dragged down by hurricanes and the Boeing strike.
Friday’s number, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, beat a consensus forecast of 200,000 by economists surveyed by Reuters. The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage point to 4.2 per cent.
November’s jobs growth marked a jump from 12,000 new positions initially recorded for October — the weakest employment report of the Biden administration. The figure was revised to 36,000 in Friday’s data release.
The jobs report is one of the final big data releases before the Federal Reserve’s December 17-18 meeting, at which it will decide whether to proceed with a third consecutive interest rate cut.
Although Friday’s figures beat forecasts, analysts said they were not sufficiently strong to undermine the case for a final rate reduction this year.
“Nothing within this release will prevent the [Federal Open Market Committee] from cutting [this month],” said Ian Lyngen, head of US rates strategy at BMO.
Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY, added: “From a Fed perspective, we are seeing a gentle deceleration in labour market momentum, and there is still not much inflationary pressure coming from the labour market.”
“Therefore I think they will proceed with an additional rate cut,” he…
