The U.S. Labor Department’s latest jobs report shows that the country added 263,000 nonfarm payrolls in November, exceeding economist expectations.
The leisure and hospitality industries led the pack in job growth with 88,000 new positions, followed by healthcare and government. However, retail saw a dip in 30,000 jobs just on the cusp of the holiday shopping season.
While job growth saw a slight decline from October rates, unemployment remained at 3.7% as predicted.
A sign of optimism is welcome, but the Federal Reserve is expected to continue hiking interest rates to stave off inflation and cool demand. However, hourly earnings grew 0.6% and wages grew to 5.1% year-over-year, giving consumers even more spending power.
“To have 263,000 jobs added even after policy rates have been raised by some [375] basis points is no joke,” said Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management. “The labor market is hot, hot, hot, heaping pressure on the Fed to continue raising policy rates.”
