The US economy continues to produce more jobs despite being close to full employment. The unemployment rate has remained at or under 4% since April 2018 and the underemployment rate has been falling in trend terms. The latest employment report indicates the US economy is still producing jobs at a rate which is slowly grinding the US unemployment rate lower.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US economy created an additional 266,000 jobs in the non-farm sector in November, noticeably more than October’s revised increase of 156,000 and more than the 190,000 increase which had been expected. Employment figures for September and October were also revised up by a total of 41,000.
The November unemployment rate returned to September’s rate of 3.5% after climbing to 3.6% in October. The total number of unemployed decreased by 44,000 to 5.811 million while the total number of people who are either employed or looking for work increased by 399,000 to 164.764 million.
US Treasury yields finished higher on the day. By the close of business, 2-year Treasury yields were 5bps higher at 1.63%, the 10-year yield had gained 3bps to 1.84% and 30-year yields had increased by 2bps to 2.28%.