Boeing employees gather on a picket line at the entrance to a Boeing facility on October 24 in Seattle. The strike ended with an agreement in November. Employees returning to work took into account the growth reported in the latest labor report. (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)
The economy added 227,000 jobs in November, making for a strong jobs report despite a slight increase in the unemployment rate. Although the labor market has cooled this year, the Trump administration will inherit a fairly healthy labor market, with decent job growth in many sectors.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the number of jobs was increased by the return of striking workers. Employment in transportation equipment manufacturing increased by 32,000 jobs. Boeing machinists who went on strike in September seeking higher wages and better pension benefits reached a agreement in November.
The agency also revised the number of jobs added in the October and September reports by a combined 56,000 jobs.
Although the unemployment rate has risen from 4.1% to 4.2%, the economy looks strong, especially when you look at gross domestic product, said Louise Sheiner of the nonpartisan Brookings Institution.
“It was remarkably strong. If you look at what the Congressional Budget Office projected the level of real GDP to be before the pandemic, it’s higher now. We just had a very strong economy,” said Sheiner, who focuses on fiscal policy.
While she said the job market has slowed a bit, it is still healthy.
Elise Gould, a senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the three-month average of job growth of 173,000 jobs indicates a fairly strong labor market.
Healthcare and government employment, including state government employment, continued to create jobs. Leisure and hospitality created 53,000 jobs, while catering and drinking establishments created 29,000 jobs.
Gould said she keeps an eye on the employment-to-population ratio, a measure of the number of workers employed versus the working-age population. The measure fell by 0.6 percentage points over the year.
“Let’s pay attention to that and see where that leads,” she said. “We were at a pretty nice high this summer, but that has dropped off a little bit.”
Economists will also keep an eye on changes in demographics in the next jobs report. The unemployment rate for black men rose from 5.7% to 6% and the unemployment rate for black women rose from 4.9% to 6%. Economists and policy experts said that while they are watching these numbers, they don’t think the higher unemployment rate for Black people will necessarily continue. The month-on-month data can be volatile and may not indicate a broader trend, they said.
“The black unemployment rate rose to 6.4%, which is the highest it’s been since March, and then when we look at black women, we saw their unemployment rate rise to 6%, which is the highest we’ve seen in 2.5 years ” says Clara Wilson, senior policy analyst at the Groundwork Collaborative, a left-wing economic think tank. “However, the spike in black unemployment is something to always keep an eye on because if we continue to see a rise in black unemployment, that is usually a warning sign in the coal mine that there could be further weakening of the labor market in the future can occur. line.”
Retail jobs fell by 28,000, with a loss of 15,000 in general merchandise and 4,000 in electronics and appliance retail.
“I’m not really concerned about it because it could be due to the fact that it was just a late Thanksgiving this year, so holiday hiring may not have happened in the same way during the reference period,” Gould said.
Average hourly wages rose 0.4%, the same as in October, and 4% over the past year. While some economists say the Federal Reserve would like to see wages fall to help it meet its 2% inflation target, Wilson said higher wages are an indication that workers are benefiting from the current economy. She said she worries that the Trump administration will reverse some of the economic progress she said was made by the Biden administration’s key legislation.
“It’s really important to remember that real people are behind the data and the strong labor market provides more opportunities for workers and ensures families have higher wages, leading to a stronger economy. Policymakers must take the lessons we learned from those strong public investments and continue that progress,” Wilson said.
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