U.S. Adds 210K Jobs, Unemployment Drops To 4.2%

The Labor Department reports U.S. employers added 210,000 jobs in November on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Economists had expected the number to be more than half a million for the second straight month.

However, a survey of households showed a large jump in total employment with the labor force growing by hundreds of thousands.

The labor force grew by nearly 600,000 people — the biggest gain in more than a year — and the number of Americans reporting that they were working rose by more than 1.1 million, according to a Labor Department report released Friday.

Plus, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits during the week ending November 20 was 1,956,000, a drop of 107,000 from the previous
week’s revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since March 14, 2020 when it was 1,770,000.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.2 percent from 4.6 percent.