‘Job growth has seriously slowed’ – economists react to ‘disappointing’ November jobs report



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Friday’s November employment report showed that the coronavirus-stricken US economy regained 245,000 jobs last month, with the unemployment rate falling to 6.7% from 6.9%.

Economists polled by MarketWatch expected a gain of 432,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 6.8%.

See:The 245,000 new jobs created last month are the lowest since the recovery began in the United States in May

Here are some early reactions from economists and other analysts, like the main US stock market indicators SPX,
+ 0.68%

DJIA,
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exchanged above following data on the non-agricultural wage bill.

• “Job growth slowed seriously in November. While continuing to move in the right direction, at this rate of 245,000 per month, it would take 3.3 years to regain all the jobs that we have lost. The vaccine is coming, so it won’t take that long, but we run the risk of backing down. “- Adam ozimek, chief economist at Upwork

• “Overall, this is a disappointing report. Several high-frequency data reports, both traditional and alternative / real-time, indicated that the labor market recovery was slowing in November and today’s report confirms this notion. With COVID cases on the rise and policies put in place to try to slow the spread, hiring has slowed. In addition, the availability of workers is also a significant limiting factor, with many of them unable to get to work due to COVID issues or family obligations. – Thomas Simons and Aneta Markowska, economists at Jefferies

• “Unemployment has fallen due to people dropping out of the labor market, and average wages seem [have] due to the loss of low-wage jobs. It’s not good.” – Kate bahn, director of labor market policy and economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth

• “Tepid #jobsreport this morning. Only 245,000 new jobs created (the lowest in 6 months) and the participation rate fell. The labor market is losing momentum just as unemployment benefits are waning. “- Carl Tannenbaum, Chief Economist at Northern Trust

• “The overall gain of 245,000 was depressed by a drop of 99,000 in public employment. This was mainly due to a drop of 93,000 in temporary census hires, although there was a further drop of 21,000 education jobs at the state and local level. The big slowdown, however, reflected a sharp drop in earnings in discretionary services sectors, as soaring virus cases and renewed restrictions took their toll. Employment in the leisure and hospitality sector only increased by 31,000 last month, after increasing by nearly 300,000 the previous month. – Michael Pearce, Senior US Economist at Capital Economics

• “The surge in virus cases started to catch up with the US labor market in November, as hiring slowed to a fraction of the rate seen in previous months. … Wages grew 0.3% better than expected for the month, which probably represents the shift in the composition of hiring towards higher paying industries. With the virus still spreading rapidly, December could be a more difficult month for the job market as some states consider increasing restrictions on activity. This coincides with the expiration of a few federal unemployment benefit programs at the end of the year, suggesting additional budget support is becoming increasingly urgent. – Katherine Judge, CIBC economist



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