November 2015 employment: Slow growth compared to previous months

Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate continues to hold steady at 5 percent in November. The unemployment rate officially dropped two whole percentage points over the past two years, since November 2013. Approximately 7.9 million Americans still find themselves unemployed, a number unchanged since last month. In addition, 211,000 new jobs were added in November. This is quite a bit lower than October’s employment numbers (271,000 new jobs added last month), and also lower than the monthly average over the past year (230,000 new jobs per month). Of the 211,000 new jobs in November, the majority of the positions were in construction, food and drinking places and retail trade. Construction saw 46,000 new jobs, primarily in residential contractors, while food and drinking places gained 32,000 new jobs. Retail trade’s 31,000 jobs were divided between general merchandise stores and auto dealers. Mining continued to lose jobs for the industry, with a net loss of 11,000 jobs in November. The only industry that took a harder hit than mining was the information sector, which saw losses of 12,000 jobs. The bulk of the information jobs lost were in motion pictures and sound recording. Other industries — including manufacturing, transportation, government and financial — saw no change from October’s numbers.]]>