The November jobs report revealed the economy added 266,000 jobs. Unemployment hit 3.5%, which matches a 50-year low.
There is one caveat. The jobs report gained so many jobs due “to a reversal of the General Motors strike impact.” Economists believed this reversal would add 45,000 jobs. Overall, they expected 145,000 jobs in November.
The report showed General Motors added 41,300 jobs to the report.
Other sectors gained a handful of jobs:
A few sectors did not fare so well in the report:
The news was not all good. As the holiday shopping season accelerated, retail companies added just 2,000 net hires as gains in general merchandise of 22,000 and motor vehicle and parts dealers of 8,000 were offset by an 18,000 loss in clothing and clothing accessories.Mining also showed a loss of 7,000 positions, bringing to 19,000 the total jobs lost since May.
However, in regards to retail, a lot of people shop online for Christmas presents.
Wages went up 3.1% from a year ago, but down from a peak of 3.4% in February. The average hourly wages went up to $28.29, which is 7 cents higher from October.
Bloomberg Economists have lowered “its projection of the 2020 year-end unemployment rate to 3.3% from 3.4%.” Bloomberg also noted that the “[H]iring momentum continues to surpass the growth rate of the labor force, which is closer to 100k-125k per month.”
This will help President Donald Trump in 2020 because the voters will face “the lowest election day unemployment rate since Dwight Eisenhower won his first term as president in 1952.”
Revisions for September and October included higher numbers:
In addition to the robust November gains, revisions brought up totals from the two previous months. September’s estimate went up 13,000 to 193,000 and the initial October count increased by 28,000 to 156,000. Those changes added 41,000 to the previous tallies and brought the 2019 monthly average to 180,000, compared with 223,000 in 2018.
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