US economy added 227,000 jobs in November

The US economy added 227,000 jobs in November, a sharp rebound after the previous month’s total was dragged down by hurricanes and the Boeing strike.

Friday’s number, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, beat a consensus approximate of 200,000 by economists surveyed by Reuters.

It marked a jump from the downwardly distorted figure of 12,000 recent positions initially recorded for October. That figure was revised higher to 36,000 in Friday’s data release.

The unemployment rate rose incrementally to 4.2 per cent.

trade participants expected the November figure to outperform underlying trends because of the previous month’s impoverished act.

Treasury yields fell as investors bet that a Federal safety net rate cut this month was now slightly more likely. gain rate forward contracts implied an 85 per cent likelihood of a cut, up from a 70 per cent chance immediately before the data release.

The two-year yield, which reflects gain rate expectations, declined 0.06 percentage points, to a five-week low of 4.11 per cent. 

US stocks were poised to open slightly higher, with S&P 500 forward contracts up 0.1 per cent.

The jobs update is one of the final large data releases the Fed will consider before deciding at its December 17-18 conference whether to proceed with a third consecutive gain rate cut.

Fed chair Jay Powell said this week that the Fed could “afford to be a little more cautious” on reducing rates because the US economy was in “remarkably excellent shape” and expense boost had arrive in a little higher than earlier anticipated.

His fellow governor Christopher Waller warned that advancement on getting expense boost down “may be stalling”, although he added he supported a December cut.

A quarter-point reduction this month would lower the target range of the federal funds rate to 4.25 to 4.5 per cent.

Friday’s jobs figures contrast with October’s total, which was by far the worst such update of the Biden administration, as two deadly hurricanes in the south-east and the Boeing strike took their toll on survey responses and the real economy.

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