The November employment report, delayed by the government shutdown, shows a clear cooling of the U.S. labor market. The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, higher than 4.4% in September, reaching a four-year high and significantly exceeding the 4.0% at the beginning of the year. The month added only 64,000 jobs, partially reversing the decline in October, but the overall growth remained weak. Over the past two months, the federal government lost about 168,000 jobs due to the end of the delayed resignation plan, and manufacturing also lost 5,000 jobs in November. At the same time, wage growth slowed to the lowest level since 2021, reflecting businesses' growing caution in hiring and rising public pessimism about economic prospects. The report further confirms the Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates last week. Since September, the Federal Reserve has continuously made small interest rate cuts, attempting to prevent the labor market from "overheating" despite still high inflation. A broader measure of underemployment also deteriorated significantly, with the proportion of people who want full-time work but can only find part-time jobs, or who are not actively looking for work, rising to 8.7% in November, an increase of one percentage point compared to the same period last year. The unemployment rate for African Americans rose to 8.3%, increasing by more than two percentage points this year, seen as an early signal of potential further weakening in the labor market. Analysts pointed out that federal layoffs, rising costs, and the data distortion caused by the government shutdown made this report complex in structure, but the overall trend shows that the resilience of the U.S. job market is weakening.
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Original article: toutiao.com/article/1851717914715147/
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