Despite the Fed's push to curb inflation, America's jobs engine kept chugging in November, according to the Labor Department.
A wave of layoffs in the tech industry didn't deter employers from creating 263,000 jobs. The revision of the figure for October was 284,000.
Wages have risen 5.1 percent more than expected and the unemployment rate has not changed.
In the last six months, the labor market has added an average of 323,000 jobs per month, despite the Fed raising interest rates.
November's job gains were powered by service sectors like education and health care. Workers put in fewer hours when hiring in industries that are sensitive to rising borrowing costs.
"I don't want to paint this as a weak report, because it's not," said Drew Matus, chief market strategist at MetLife Investment Management. I think there are some parts of it that don't ring like something that's always happening.
The leisure and hospitality industry is 5.8 percent below its prepandemic level despite hotels and restaurants regaining their losses. Retailing was one of the industries that lost jobs, as employers like Walmart announced lower than usual holiday hiring, although the volatility of the last few years have made that data more difficult to assess.
Businesses have found reason to expand despite being cautious.
Jon Guidi is the chief executive of HealthCare Recruiters International. There isn't a strong negative indication on anything. We still need to hire, but maybe not as fast as we used to. We might be a little pickier.
The health care industry has seen some of the highest job opening rates in the economy as employers seek to win back workers who bore the brunt of dealing with Covid-19 Job postings and the share of workers quitting their jobs have been declining, while initial claims for unemployment insurance have remained low.
In November, the transportation and warehousing sector lost about 15,000 jobs as shoppers spent more on travel and leisure. Bob Costello, chief economist of the American Trucking Associations, said that some independent truck drivers have left for other jobs, but the overall number of jobs has remained above its baseline.
If you pass a drug test and have no accidents on your record, there is no reason for you to be out of a job. It was zero.
There are signs that a more serious contraction is about to start.
The purchasing managers' index for manufacturing turned negative for the first time since the outbreak of the H1N1 flu. A quadrupling of layoffs last month from a year earlier was measured by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The recent cuts may not affect the rest of the economy. San Francisco is dependent on those highly paid positions and they are likely to cause pain in that region.
Two-thirds of the city's growth since 2010 has come directly or indirectly from tech, and it's premature to see downturns in other industries. Tech will eventually drag down the local economy.
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