U.S. employers added a solid 178,000 jobs in November, reflecting the steady economy President-elect Donald Trump will inherit.
The unemployment rate hit a nine-year low of 4.6%, though mainly because many people stopped looking for jobs and were no longer counted as unemployed, The Associated Press reports.
Even so, today’s jobs report from the U.S. Labor Department reflects a resilient job market that is helping drive the U.S. economy. The economy this year has added an average of 180,000 jobs a month—more than enough to lower the unemployment rate over time.
The pace of hiring is keeping the Federal Reserve on track to raise short-term interest rates at its next meeting in less than two weeks.
Still, sluggish pay increases and a decline in the number of Americans either working or seeking work point to longer-term challenges for the economy under Trump. Last month, average hourly pay slipped after a strong gain in October. Pay has grown only modestly over the past year.
Those same challenges bedeviled President Barack Obama and might have helped lead millions of voters to choose Trump over Hillary Clinton.
Last month, the number of unemployed fell by 387,000 to 7.4 million, lowering the jobless rate from 4.9%. But only about a third of that drop occurred because people found work. The rest reflected a decline in people looking for jobs. The government doesn’t count people as unemployed unless they’re actively looking for a job.
The unemployment rate in the Baton Rouge metro area was at 5% in October, according to the monthly jobs report released by the Louisiana Workforce Commission earlier this week. The local rate is unchanged from a year ago, but is down one percentage point from September. The Louisiana unemployment rate in Louisiana was at 5.9% in October, according to the LWC report.
The Associated Press has the full story on the national jobs report released this morning.
