Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN / Getty Images
Despite high inflation and rising interest rates, companies did not stop hiring of employees in November, defying the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cool the economy and curb inflation.
According to the latest report from the Department of Labor, the economy added 263,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate held at 3.7%, still near a low of 54 years.
The November job growth slowed only slightly from the gain of 200, October.
More than half of job growth last month, 200,, was produced in two large industries: education and health care, and a composite category mainly by restaurants, hotels and entertainment companies.
Both sectors are still replacing workers lost during the pandemic. Most other industries have exceeded their pre-pandemic employment levels .
There were some signs of weakness in Friday’s numbers: Retail, Transportation and Warehousing they cut jobs .
So did temporary employment agencies, often seen as a leading indicator of hiring, has decreased for three consecutive months.
However, a category that includes tech workers actually added jobs, despite many recent announcements of high-profile layoffs from tech companies like Amazon, Meta, Twitter, and Redfin Real Estate Broker.
Slow deceleration
The report painted a picture of a labor market in which the supply of available workers is falling, even though many companies are still desperate to hire to meet customer demand.
The proportion of Americans who have a job or are looking for one declined due to second consecutive month, a little less than 54%.
In November,
average hourly wage increased 5.1% compared to the prior year, a solid increase that is good news for workers, but complicating the Federal Reserve’s efforts to curb inflation.
Strength in hiring and wage gains raised concerns immediate that the Fed will now have to keep rates high , even higher than many had assumed .
The stock market reacted with alarm, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging more than 678 points when trading opened on Friday.
This week, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell emphasized in a speech that I use them s and wages were growing too fast for the central bank to quickly rein in inflation.
The Fed has raised its benchmark rate, from near zero in March to nearly 4%, to try to push inflation back toward its 2% annual target.
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