Employment grew faster than expected in November as the hit from superstorm Sandy on payrolls was less forceful than many feared, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the jobless rate fell to a near four-year low, but that was largely because so many Americans gave up the hunt for work.<\/p>\n
Nonfarm employment increased by 146,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, defying expectations of a sharp pull back related to superstorm Sandy.<\/p>\n
The government said the storm which slammed the densely populated East Coast had not had a substantive impact on last month\u2019s employment and unemployment estimates.<\/p>\n
U.S. financial markets appeared to put more faith in the payroll growth figures, with stock index futures turning positive and prices for US government debt falling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe labor market is not getting worse, but is also not getting much better as it is unchanged relative to the recent trend,\u201d said Jacob Oubina, a senior US economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.<\/p>\n
The 0.2 percentage point drop in the unemployment rate to 7.7 per cent \u2014 the lowest since December 2008 \u2014 represented a drop in both the labor force and employment as measured by a survey of households. Economists generally rely more heavily on the payrolls reading from the separate and much larger survey of employers.<\/p>\n
While job gains for both September and October were revised to show 49,000 fewer jobs created than earlier reported, the revision was concentrated in the government sector.<\/p>\n
Job gains have averaged 151,000 per month this year, just enough to push the jobless rate lower, but only slowly. Economists say roughly 200,000-250,000 jobs per month are needed to really make headway.<\/p>\n
Employment continues to be held back by fears the government may fail to prevent the $600 billion in automatic tax hikes and government spending cuts set to take hold at the start of next year. The debt crisis in Europe has also weighed.<\/p>\n
With the pace of job growth still too slow, November\u2019s report is not expected to have much impact on Federal Reserve policymakers, who meet next Tuesday and Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Economists said an anticipated tightening of fiscal policy next year, even if a deal is reached to avoid completely going over the \u201cfiscal cliff,\u201d provides ample reason for the U.S. central bank to maintain its ultra-easy monetary policy stance.<\/p>\n