Strong hiring across the US economy in November.
Strong hiring across the US economy in November lent fresh support Friday to the Federal Reserve embarking on a long-awaited series of interest rate hikes later this month. The US economy pumped out 211,000 new jobs last month, and the previous two months were significantly better than previous estimates, the Labor Department reported. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.0 percent, the lowest level in seven years. A broad range of industries were expanding payrolls at a strong pace: construction, retail trade, finance, education and health, business services, and restaurants and hotels. Even government, joined in with 14,000 net new positions. There were still weaknesses in the report: average wage gains remain slow - up just 0.16 percent from October; the ratio of working age people participating in the labor force is historically very low; and the number of people forced to take part-time jobs increased by 319,000 to a still-large 6.1 million. But overall the report indicated a firming of the jobs market and a resilience in growth that would allow the Fed to begin raising its benchmark federal funds rate, economists said.