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Economy Gains 210,000 Jobs in November; Unemployment Down to 4.2%

BLS

The U.S. economy gained 210,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate declined to 4.2%, according to figures released Friday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In response to the November job numbers, AFL-CIO Chief Economist William Spriggs tweeted:

Last month’s biggest job gains were in professional and business services (+90,000), transportation and warehousing (+50,000), construction (+31,000), manufacturing (+31,000), leisure and hospitality (+23,000) and financial activities (+13,000). The only industry to see losses over the month was retail trade (-20,000). In November, employment showed little change in other major industries, including health care, information, mining, other services, public and private education and wholesale trade.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates fell in November for Black Americans (6.7%), Hispanics (5.2%), adult men (4.0%), adult women (4.0%) and White Americans (3.7%). The jobless rates for teenagers (11.2%) and Asian Americans (3.8%) showed little change over the month.

The number of long-term unemployed workers (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) showed little change in November and accounted for 32.1% of the total unemployed.