US job market fails to meet expectations, unemployment stays unchanged

The U.S. added 155,000 jobs in November, 44,000 less than economists had predicted. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7 percent.

What are the details?

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its analysis of employment data for November.

While the unemployment rate stayed largely the same, the number of long-term unemployed people who had been out of work for at least 27 weeks declined by 120,000.

Over the course of the year, the unemployment rate has declined by 0.4 percent. Six million people are currently unemployed in the United States.

The number of jobs added this month was down from the 199,000 that economists had predicted. The job market in the past 12 months has seen an average monthly gain of 209,000. Employment numbers for October were also revised down slightly from 250,000 to 237,000. Numbers for September, however, were revised upward from 118,000 to 119,000.

While merchandise stores saw a gain, clothing stores (a loss of 14,000), electronic and appliance stores (a loss of 11,000) and sporting goods, hobby and book stores (a loss of 11,000) all saw job losses in November.

What else?

Employees also received a bigger paycheck, on average, last month. The “average hourly earnings for all employees on private non-farm payrolls" rose by 6 cents to $27.35.

Over the course of the year, earnings have gone up by 81 cents. In addition to making slightly more, workers are also working slightly less. In November, the average workweek “for employees on private non-farm payrolls" decreased by 0.1 hours to 34.4 hours.