The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, the highest it has been in more than four years, reported The Wall Street Journal, up from 4% in January.
“A long-delayed government report on Tuesday showed that 64,000 jobs were gained in November, while 105,000 jobs were lost in October. Job losses in June, August and October mean the U.S. economy has shed jobs in three out of the past six months. The unemployment rate in November was up from 4.4% in September, the last month the Labor Department reported for that metric,” the outlet wrote.
Wage growth in November cooled significantly, reflecting “new strain on U.S. households as inflation remains elevated. Average hourly wages have risen by 3.5% over the past 12 months to $36.86 an hour,” wrote The Washington Post.
“Today’s report showed overall stagnant growth,” said Nicole Bachaud, labor economist at ZipRecruiter. “This really points to the challenges in the policy landscape that businesses are going up against, tariffs, geopolitical uncertainty, inflation that’s staying really stubborn.”
Also on Tuesday, the government reported that U.S. retail sales were decelerating.
Overall, The Wall Street Journal concluded that the current labor market is a “low-fire, low-hire” environment. Most companies aren’t laying off workers en masse, but they also aren’t willing to hire too many new workers.