The US added 64,000 jobs in November — but it wasn't all good news

• The US added 64,000 jobs in November, beating the expected 50,000.
• Unemployment rose from September, the last available rate, a little bit more than expected.
• The BLS delayed the report to allow more time for collection and processing.

The US added 64,000 jobs in November, exceeding the expected 50,000, and unemployment ticked up from September, the last available rate, to 4.6%.

Economists expected the unemployment rate to be 4.5%, just above September's 4.4%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics won't be publishing an October unemployment rate because the agency wasn't able to survey households during the government shutdown that lasted from October to roughly mid-November.

Due to data challenges, there could be more statistical noise than usual in the unemployment rate and related figures.

BLS was still able to produce October job growth figures because the data comes from a separate survey of businesses and government agencies. October showed a decline of 105,000 jobs, largely from a sharp drop in federal government employment of 162,000 workers that month who were formally coming off the payrolls after the DOGE-fueled job cuts earlier this year.

The BLS delayed the November report from December 5 to December 16 to help with data collection and processing. The September report was published about a week after the shutdown ended.

September's job growth was revised from 119,000 to 108,000 in the latest report. August also had a larger loss than previously estimated, from a drop of 4,000 to a drop of 26,000. "With these revisions, employment in August and September combined is 33,000 lower than previously reported," BLS said.

Wage growth moderated. Average hourly earnings increased from $35.61 to $36.86 year over year in November, or a 3.5% increase.

Most major industries saw a decline or small job growth in November. Meanwhile, healthcare and construction were relatively big winners, adding 46,300 jobs and 28,000 jobs, respectively. Social assistance added 17,700. However, employment fell by 17,700 in transportation and warehousing and by 12,000 in leisure and hospitality.

The Federal Reserve made its last rate decision of the year last week, without the November jobs report or the consumer price index report, which has also been delayed. Using other available data to gauge the economy and its dual mandate, the Fed made a third consecutive interest-rate cut.

"This further normalization of our policy stance should help stabilize the labor market while allowing inflation to resume its downward trend toward 2% once the effects of tariffs have passed through," said Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell at last week's press conference.

The Fed will make its next rate decision toward the end of January. CME FedWatch, which indicates probabilities of what the Fed will decide, showed a roughly 75% chance of keeping rates steady and a 25% chance of a fourth consecutive cut.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.