November's jobs report was better than expected, and growth came from several different areas of the U.S. economy, according to the data.
Health care and human services led the way again last month, adding 72,300 new jobs in the field, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This came after the group made its largest contribution in October.
If, as some economists do, one includes private education in the “health” category, the group’s growth would have increased even more, to 79,000.
Leisure and hospitality was the second-largest contributor last month, adding 53,000 jobs. This also represents significant growth compared to October's performance. November's gains were supported by employment in food and drink establishments, which trended up by 29,000.
Meanwhile, government, a category that was the second-largest contributor two months ago, was just behind leisure and hospitality last month. In November the group grew by 33,000 jobs.
Of particular note is the significant recovery in manufacturing and professional and business services, two sectors that suffered major losses in October as a result of the seven-week Boeing equipment strike and the impact of hurricanes Helene and Milton. Last month, these categories saw job gains of 22,000 and 26,000, respectively.
“After a previous month of hurricanes and labor strikes, we saw another rebound and positive corrections in payroll headlines,” Byron Anderson, head of fixed income at Laffer Tengler Investments, said in a statement. “Job creation may not be as strong as in recent years, but we are not seeing a catastrophe in the labor market.”
While there were some gains in other areas such as construction, ZipRecruiter's Julia Pollak noted that the gains were “very narrowly” concentrated and told CNBC that growth in manufacturing was actually slower than she expected.
Retail, which lost 28,000 jobs, was also a key weakness in the report. Unless there is a turnaround in other sectors soon, Pollak expects the pace of overall job growth to “continue to slow.”
“Some people call this an upswing, [but] “I think you shouldn't be fooled by the seemingly healthy wage growth,” the company's chief economist said in an interview. “We always knew this report would overstate the underlying strength of the labor market.” [and] be inflated by the return of workers after strikes and storms.”
On the other hand, Pollak pointed to financial activity as a bright spot. This group recorded an increase of 17,000 jobs in November.
“Banks are becoming…kind of optimistic and excited about a Trump administration that is expected to loosen financial regulations and take a more favorable approach to mergers and acquisitions,” she added. “So this is definitely a sector where we're seeing more optimism and a little bit more hiring in some places.”
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