A weaker-than-expected jobs report has come out today as total non-farm payroll employment increased by 155,000 in November, with the nationwide unemployment rate remaining unchanged at 3.7 percent, for the third month in a row. In a news release, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday that most job gains were seen in the healthcare, manufacturing, professional and business services, and transportation and warehousing sectors.
Within the major worker demographics, the unemployment rates are:
Adult men: 3.3 percent; adult women: 3.4 percent; teenagers: 12.0 percent; Caucasians: 3.4 percent; African-Americans: 5.9 percent; Asians: 2.7 percent; Hispanics: 4.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the amount of long-term unemployed Americans – those who have remained jobless for 27 weeks or more – declined by 120,000 to 1.3 million last month. Both the labor force participation rate and the employment-population ratio were left largely unchanged at 62.9 percent and 60.6 percent, respectively.
The November jobs report is off the mark of the average of 209,000 jobs created per month over the prior 12 months, but the number of employed Americans once again reached an all-time high of 156,795,000, the 13th record-breaking month since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017.
Among the major industries, gains were:
Healthcare: 32,000; manufacturing: 27,000 jobs; transportation and warehousing: 25,000; professional and business services: 32,000; retail trade: 18,000. Employment in the mining, construction, wholesale trade, information, financial activities, and leisure and hospitality industries showed little change over the month.
The average workweek for all employees on private non-farm payrolls decreased by 0.1 hours to 34.4 hours in November. Over the course of 2018, average hourly earnings have increased by 81 cents, or 3.1 percent.
The change in total non-farm payroll employment for October was revised down from 250,000 to 237,000, while September was revised up from 118,000 to 119,000. After revisions, job gains have averaged 170,000 per month over the last three months.
As investors on Wall Street continue to unload on the market, including a massive sell off of FAANG stocks that have shed hundreds of billions of dollars this week, tensions with international trade remain a top concern for the U.S. economy as growth begins to slow following over a year of above three percent domestic growth.