Jobless Rate Falls to 7.7 Percent

U.S. employers added 146,000 jobs in November, decreasing the unemployment rate from 7.9 percent to 7.7 percent.

However, this number is due mainly to a decrease in the labor force participation rate, which "declined by 0.2% to 63.6% once again, as the number of people out of the labor increased by over 540K to 88,883,000," Zero Hedge notes.

Courtesy ZH

The Labor Department on Thursday said Supertorm Sandy did not significantly affect the numbers, contrary to what many had expected.

But the government said employers added 49,000 fewer jobs in October and September than initially estimated. And the unemployment rate fell from 7.9 percent in October mostly because more people stopped looking for work and weren't counted as unemployed.

"In terms of quality of jobs, the biggest gain was in retail jobs as expected in part of the Thanksgiving rush, which added +53K jobs, Professional and Business services rose by 43K, of which Administrative and Waste Services was +23K, and Hospitality and Leisure +23K: all los paying jobs," Zero Hedge notes. "Construction jobs lost: 20K."

Since July, the economy has created an average of 173,000 jobs a month, up from 67,000 a month from April through June. Obviously, this is not enough to help combat chronic unemployment.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.