November NFP: +245K; Unemployment 6.7%

The November jobs report is out. The U.S. economy created 245,000 net new jobs last month. That compares with 610,000 for October. Wall Street expected 440,000.

The unemployment rate dropped to 6.7%.

The number of unemployed persons is 10.7 million. That’s 4.9 million higher than in February.

The numbers come amid a new wave of coronavirus cases that threatens to push the U.S. healthcare system to the brink. More than 100,000 people are hospitalized across the U.S. due to the accelerated outbreak, which saw 210,161 new cases Thursday, according to the Covid Tracking Project overseen by journalists at The Atlantic.

Though the U.S. is coming off its fastest growth quarter ever, economists worry that the next quarter or two could see flat or even negative growth before rebounding strongly in the latter part of 2021.

The November job gains would be considered strong under normal circumstances, but the pandemic has left millions of Americans out of work from jobs lost in the early stages of the crisis. The total represents the slowest job growth since the employment recovery began in May.

Posted by on December 4th, 2020 at 8:34 am


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