MNI DATA IMPACT: US Nov Job Growth Misses Expectations

U.S. job growth slowed dramatically in November as new Covid-19 infections reaching all-time highs across the nation, spurring renewed business restrictions in some sectors, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

Just 245,000 jobs were created in November, far below market expectations for an increase of 475,000. Nonfarm employment in November was down 9.8 million, or 6.5%, from February, the BLS said.

Net revisions for the previous two months were a positive 11,000, bringing the three-month average increase to 522,000.

Total private payrolls rose 344,000 in November, also below expectations for a 545,000 gain. Job growth in transportation and warehousing surged by 145,000 as online shopping spiked this holiday season, while The retail sector lost 35,000 jobs relative to usual seasonal patterns, the BLS said.

Overall job growth in leisure and hospitality, hit hardest by pandemic shutdowns, was up by only 31,000 in November and is still down 3.4 million from February.

Professional and business services jobs increased by 60,000 in November, with roughly half of that coming from temporary staffing, the BLS said.

Government employment declined for the third consecutive month, falling by 99,000 in November and reflecting the loss of 93,000 temporary Census workers and a loss of 21,000 state and local government workers, the BLS said.

LEAVING LABOR FORCE

The unemployment rate in November fell by two-tenths to 6.7%, slightly better than forecasts for a decline to 6.8%, but that's in large part due to a decline in labor participation. The employment-population ratio fell by a tenth to 57.3%, while the labor force participation rate also fell slightly to 61.5% from 61.7%.

The median duration of unemployment also slipped in November, falling by more than a full week to 18.8 weeks from 19.9 weeks in October.

Still, the number of long-term unemployed continued to rise, growing by 385,000 to 3.9 million. Long-term unemployment in November accounted for 36.9% of the total unemployed, the BLS said, up from 32.5% in October.

The number of permanent job losers was relatively unchanged from October at 3.7 million but was still 2.5 million higher than February. Workers on temporary layoff fell by 441,000 in November to 2.8 million, down significantly from 18.1 million in April, though still 2 million more than February.

The U-6 rate, which accounts for discouraged workers, fell only slightly to 12.0% in November from 12.1% in October.

The length of the average work week was unchanged at 34.8 hours. Average hourly earnings grew by 0.3%, above expectations for a 0.1% gain, and likely reflects a shift in the composition of jobs. From a year earlier, earnings were up 4.4%.

The BLS said a misclassification error that has skewed unemployment figures since March was essentially nonexistent in November, and would have pushed up the reported rate of unemployment by only 0.4 percentage points at most.