Article source: ConstructConnect
November’s U.S. employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) records a net increase in the nation’s jobs count of +266,000. Such a large gain, however, is somewhat distorted by a +54,000 increase in manufacturing jobs that comes on the heels of a -43,000 decline the month before. The big swing from one month to the next was mostly due to the onset of the strike at General Motors in October, followed by resolution four weeks later.
Therefore, the number carrying more significance for November’s jobs picture is the impressive uptick in private services-providing jobs, +206,000. While the average monthly increase in total jobs in America to date this year has been +180,000, down from +223,000 through the same January-November period of last year (i.e., -19%), the pullback in ‘services’ jobs has been far less severe, +149,000 compared with +161,000 (i.e., -7%).
Both the seasonally adjusted (SA) and not seasonally adjusted (NSA) unemployment rates stayed extremely tight in the latest reporting month, 3.5% and 3.3% respectively. The SA rate was down from 3.6% in October; the NSA rate was the same as in October.
