WASHINGTON, D.C. — Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 210,000 in November, and the unemployment rate fell from 4.6 percent in October to 4.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today. The headline number was well below Wall Street expectations of 573,000 jobs, according to CNBC.
Notable job gains occurred in the professional and business services, transportation and warehousing, construction and manufacturing employment sectors. Meanwhile, employment in retail trade declined by 20,400 in November from the prior month, according to BLS.
Employment in leisure and hospitality changed little in November (+23,000), following large gains earlier in the year. The leisure and hospitality sector has added 2.4 million jobs thus far in 2021, but employment in the industry is down by 1.3 million, or 7.9 percent, since February 2020.
Health care employment was relatively unchanged in November (+2,000). Within the industry, employment in ambulatory health care services continued to trend up (+17,000), while nursing and residential care facilities lost 11,000 jobs. Employment in health care is down by 450,000 since February 2020, with nursing and residential care facilities accounting for nearly all of the loss.
In November, employment showed little change in other major industries, including mining, wholesale trade, information, other services, and public and private education.
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for September was revised up by 67,000, from 312,000 to 379,000, and the change for October was revised up by 15,000, from 531,000 to 546,000. With these revisions, employment in September and October combined was 82,000 higher than previously reported.