A bit of delay in accessing the data. Here are the details:
Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 120,000, near consensus. Unemployment rate surprised everyone with a drop of by 0.4% to 8.6% (U3).
Note that the unemployment rate is measured by the Household survey, which seems to have greater fluctuations more and has more volatility than the Establishment survey (I’d like to verify this — do readers have any suggestions as to how?)
Here are the details:
• Unemployment dropped to 8.6%, the lowest levels since March 2009;
• The number of unemployed persons, fell by 594,000 to 13.3 million; Labor force (unemployed + employed) was down by ~half that amount, accounting for much of the UE drop.
• Private sector added 140,000 jobs (federal, state and local government cutbacks subtracted 20,000
• Average monthly gain for the prior 12 months = +131,000.• Note our three leading subsectors were all soft:
…-Gains in temporary help services were described as “Modest.”
…-Average workweek was unchanged at 34.3 hours
…-Average hourly earnings decreased by 2 cents, or 0.1% to $23.18;• The past year has seen average hourly earnings increase by 1.8% (Inflation has been 3.6%)
• Civilian labor force participation rate declined by 0.2% to 64.0%
• U6 Under-employment fell to 15.6% from 16.2% in October.
• Long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was little changed at 5.7 million; LT unemployed are 43.0% of unemployed.
• Among the major worker groups, unemployment rate for adult men fell by 0.5% to 8.3 percent in November.
• Revisions to NFP for September was revised upwards from +158,000 to +210,000; October was revised from +80,000 to +100,000.
• Winners were retail trade, leisure and hospitality, professional/business services, and health care.
• Losing sectors were Government employment, while manufacturing and construction were flat
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Chart 1. Unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, November 2009 – November 2011
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Chart 2. Nonfarm payroll employment over-the-month change, seasonally adjusted, November 2009 – November 2011
Source: Bureau Of Labor Statistics U.S. Department Of Labor
The Employment Situation -November 2011
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