US adds 215,000 jobs in November

The US employment numbers yesterday more or less met expectations. Reuters reports:

The U.S. job market rebounded last month from a hurricane-induced slowdown as nonfarm employers added 215,000 workers, according to a government report on Friday that showed the economy on solid ground.

The closely watched Labor Department report also said the unemployment rate held steady in November at 5 percent, just off the four-year low of 4.9 percent hit in August...

The department revised up its measure of employment for hurricane-ravaged September, saying payrolls expanded by 17,000 workers. Previously, it had reported they had shrunk 8,000.

However, job growth in October was a bit weaker than first thought as employers brought on only 44,000 new workers, not the 56,000 the department had reported a month ago.

This piece of news, together with the positive economic data over the past week and the speeches made yesterday by Federal Reserve officials, suggests that rate hikes will continue for a while longer.