The labor market continued to see growth in November, although with little net change since April, and the unemployment rate had little change from September, according to the latest Employment Situation Summary from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), delayed due to the government shutdown.
The latest jobs report saw employment grow by 64,000 jobs in November, down from the 119,000 jobs added in September. The unemployment rate, at 4.6%, was up from 4.4% in September. The BLS did not publish an October Employment Situation news release, but the latest report does include some data and analysis from that time period—notably tracking a loss of 162,000 federal government jobs, most of which seemingly were the result of buyouts from early in the year.
“In this mid-month release of employment data, the (BLS) is reporting evidence of a weakening labor market. The report comes with a few asterisks, and we are going to need more data to get a clear picture about the overall health of the labor market,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS. According to the BLS report, the U.S. lost over 100,0000 jobs in October, largely driven by a sharp decline in federal government employment.
The unemployment rate is at its highest level since September 2021, when the labor market was still healing from the pandemic, noted Realtor.com® Senior Economist Jake Krimmel.
Employment rose in healthcare and construction in November, while the federal government continued to lose jobs. Construction employment grew by 28,000 in November, as nonresidential specialty trade contractors added 19,000 jobs. For residential building construction, 3,400 jobs were added in November.
In the real estate sector, 3,200 jobs were added last month.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer issued a statement, praising the strong nonresidential construction growth in this latest job report.
“With 64,000 jobs added in November, more and more Americans are coming off the sidelines and working in the private sector,” she said. “Investment has been booming thanks to the President’s America First policies, leading to strong nonresidential construction growth.”
“Cooling economic conditions are likely to lead to lower mortgage rates in 2026, which would help fuel strong home-buying activity next year. However, uncertainty about job security among workers could temper housing demand, offsetting the benefits of lower rates,” Sturtevant added.
Year-over-year, both the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed people are higher, with a 4.6% unemployment rate and 7.8 million unemployed people, compared to last November, where the figures were 4.2% and 7.1 million.
“For housing, today’s numbers reinforce that the story is less about imminent rate cuts and more about demand fundamentals,” said Krimmel. “A softer labor market could blunt near-term housing demand by weighing on household confidence and income growth, as the Fed gathers more data before deciding their next move.”
