Nonfarm payrolls increased by just 245,000 in November, well below Wall Street estimates as rising coronavirus cases coincided with a considerable slowdown in hiring.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 440,000 and the jobless rate to decrease to 6.7% from 6.9% in October.
In all, the economy has brought back 12.3 million of the 22 million jobs lost in the first two months of the crisis. There are still 10.7 million Americans considered unemployed, compared with 5.8 million in February.
The total of permanent job losers remained at 3.7 million in November, but is up 2.5 million from February.
At the pace added in November, the economy would not be back to pre-pandemic employment levels until 2024, according to Daniel Zhao, senior economist at job placement site Glassdoor.
Reference: CNBC
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