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Payroll gains remain steady as US employers added 178,000 new jobs in November, pushing unemployment to its lowest levels since before the Great Recession.
These job gains will likely fuel the Fed’s plan to raise interest rates later this month—especially with the economy growing at its fastest pace in more than two years and GDP expanding at a 3.2% annual rate in Q3.
The Labor Department said today unemployment fell to 4.6% in November after hovering around 5% in Q3. September’s payrolls were revised up to 208,000 from the initial 156,000 reported, and October’s gains have been revised down to 142,000—a net decline of 2,000 jobs.
These figures both missed and exceeded economist expectations, the Wall Street Journal reports, as those surveyed by the WSJ expected payrolls to increase by 180,000 last month and unemployment to remain at 4.9%. [WSJ]
