A closely watched report released by the Labor Department on Friday showed employment in the U.S. increased by more than expected in the month of November.
The report said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 263,000 jobs in November after surging by an upwardly revised 284,000 jobs in October.
Economists had expected employment to shoot up by 200,000 jobs compared to the addition of 261,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
“The resilience of the labor market and the resurgence in wage pressures don’t change our view that core price inflation is going to fall more rapidly than the Fed believes,” said Paul Ashworth, Chief North America Economist at Capital Economics.
He added, “We still expect officials to slow the pace of tightening, with a smaller 50bp hike later this month.”
The Labor Department said the stronger-than-expected job growth reflected notable job gains in leisure and hospitality, healthcare, and government.
Decreases in employment in the retail and transportation and warehousing sectors limited the upside.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate held at 3.7 percent in November, unchanged from October and in line with economist estimates.
The unemployment held steady as the household survey measure of employment decreased by 138,000, while the labor force shrank by 186,000.
The report also showed average hourly employee earnings rose by $0.18 or 0.6 percent to $32.82. Annual wage growth accelerated to 5.1 percent in November from 4.9 percent in October.
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