Editor's Note: This report is based on survey data from November 2022 that was published in December 2022. This is the most recent data available. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Employers in the U.S. added 263k jobs last month, exceeding the Dow Jones forecast estimates by more than 30% for the second month in a row.  

This is also the second consecutive month that the unemployment rate has held steady at 3.7%, where it’s been for three out of the past four months. As such, consistency remains a central theme of the U.S. job market, with unemployment numbers below 3.8% for the past nine months in a row despite consistent interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve and growing concern over a possible economic downturn.  

Aside from larger-than-anticipated job growth, there were few other appreciable differences between this month and last month’s report.

The leisure and hospitality industry saw the largest number of jobs added (with 88k new payroll entries accounted for last month), more than 70% of which were new hires at restaurants and bars. This growth is slightly above the 2022 monthly average and welcome news for an industry with substantial ground to make up to hit pre-pandemic staffing levels.

Additionally, the healthcare and government sectors both grew by a little over 40k jobs last month, while the social assistance industry (which exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the first time last month), general services, information, and construction industries added a little over 20k new jobs each.

The only other industries to see noteworthy growth were manufacturing and financial activities, which both onboarded about 14k new hires over the term. On the flip side, the retail trade reported losses reaching upwards of 30k, while the transportation and warehousing industry lost about 15k.  

Wages rose again with the average hourly pay rate up 18 cents to $32.82 across the workforce, while the average pay rate for production and non-supervisory roles rose at a slightly quicker rate and was up by 19 cents to $28.10 an hour.  

Mployer Advisor’s Take

It is no surprise that the jobs numbers exceeded expectations by a significant margin given the reoccurring consistency in recent reports.  

What is far more surprising is how consistent the actual figures themselves have been, with the initial releases for the past three months ranging from 261k to 263k—less than 1% in variation over a quarter of a year.  

While there have been a series of highly publicized layoffs occurring in the tech sector as of late, it remains to be seen how much total impact there will be given the strong hiring trends across varied industries to counterbalance these losses. Overall, the economy remains strong, with wages climbing and the workweek shrinking (now down 0.1 hours on average to 34.4 hours per week). What’s more, the job market remains red hot; still too hot according to the Fed, which has signaled its intention to continue raising rates. With upward pressure on wages, inflation, and interest rates, something has to give–the hope being that the ‘something’ is inflation. Wages are up, interest rates are up, and inflation is falling, all of which seem to be good signs of things to come. Looking for more exclusive content? Check out what’s trending on the Mployer Advisor blog, or review last month’s employment numbers here.

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