The jobs report for November came in better than expected, and that growth came from several different areas of the U.S. economy, according to the data.
Health care and social assistance led the way yet again last month, seeing 72,300 new positions added in that area, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This comes after the group had the biggest contribution in October.
When including private education with the health-care category, as some economists do, the group’s growth would have increased even more to 79,000.
Leisure and hospitality had the second-biggest contribution last month, with 53,000 positions added. That also marks significant growth compared to its performance in October. The November gains were supported by employment in food services and drinking places, which trended up by 29,000.
Meanwhile, government, a category that had the second-biggest contribution two months ago, came in just behind leisure and hospitality last month. In November, the group grew by 33,000 jobs.
More notably, there was a stark rebound in manufacturing and professional and business services, two areas that suffered major losses in October as a result of the seven-week Boeing machinist strike and the effects of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Last month, those categories saw gains of 22,000 jobs and 26,000 jobs, respectively.
“After a prior month of hurricanes and worker strikes, we did get a bounce back in the headline payroll numbers plus positive revisions,” Byron Anderson, head of fixed income at Laffer Tengler Investments, said in a statement. “Jobs creation may not be as robust as in the past years, but we are not seeing a disaster in the job market.”
While there were some gains in other areas as well such as construction, Julia Pollak of ZipRecruiter noted that the gains are “very narrowly” concentrated and told CNBC that the growth in manufacturing is actually smaller than she expected to see.
Retail trade, which lost 28,000 jobs, was also a key weak spot of the report. Unless there is a turnaround in other sectors soon, Pollak believes the pace of overall job growth will “slow further.”
“Some people are calling this a bounceback, [but] I think one should not be misled by the seemingly healthy payroll gain,” the firm’s chief economist said in an interview. “We always knew going in that this report would overstate the underlying strength of the labor market [and] be inflated by the return of workers following strikes and storms.”
On the other hand, Pollak pointed to financial activities as one bright spot. That group experienced a gain of 17,000 jobs in November.
“Banks are getting … sort of bullish and excited about a Trump administration, which is seen as likely to relax financial regulations and take a more favorable approach towards mergers and acquisitions,” she added. “So, that is definitely one sector where we’re seeing more optimism and a bit more hiring in some places.”
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