Employers added 227,000 jobs in November as the labor market rebounded from anemic growth in the prior month, when hurricanes and labor disputes dampened hiring.
The unemployment rate ticked higher to 4.2% from 4.1% in the prior month. The U.S. had been forecast to add 200,000 jobs last month, according to economists surveyed by financial data firm FactSet. The unemployment rate was expected to hold steady at 4.1%.
While hiring rebounded last month, the job market overall has been weakening in recent months under the strain of the Federal Reserve’s restrictive monetary policy, with the central bank boosting borrowing rates to their highest point in 23 years to combat inflation. It’s also taking longer for hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans to find new jobs, signaling cracks within a once-hot labor market as employers continue to cope with the impact of higher borrowing costs.
“After a prior month of hurricanes and worker strikes, we …