The US economy is on track for its strongest year of job creation since 1999, as employers last month ramped up hiring and wage growth posted a small—but potentially significant—pickup, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday
Nonfarm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 321,000 in November, the strongest month of hiring since January 2012, the Labor Department said Friday. Hiring was broad across industries, led by gains in the professional and business-services sector.
“The economy may not yet be a big mean jobs machine but it is just about there,” Joel Naroff, president and chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors Inc., said in a note to clients.
The strength wasn’t limited to last month. Revisions showed US employers added 44,000 more jobs in September and October than previously estimated. October’s payroll gain was revised up to 243,000 from 214,000 and September’s growth was revised up to 271,000 from 256,000.
The unemployment rate, which is obtained from a separate survey of households, was 5.8% in November, unchanged from the prior month but down from 7% a year earlier and remaining at its lowest level since mid-2008.