While the U.S. economy had a decent month gaining jobs in November, cutbacks in the federal workforce made by the Trump administration led to large job losses in October.
According to statistics from The Labor Department in delayed reports this week, the U.S. added 64,000 jobs in November, but lost some 105,000 jobs in October due to government cuts. The result lifted the unemployment rate to 4.6 percent, which is the highest it’s been since 2021.
The November job gains were higher than the 40,000 economists had forecast, according to a report from The Associated Press. The October job losses included a 162,000 drop in federal workers, many of whom resigned at the end of fiscal year 2025 on Sept. 30 under pressure from billionaire Elon Musk’s purge of U.S. government payrolls.
Labor Department revisions also knocked 33,000 jobs off August and September payrolls.
Hiring has clearly lost momentum, affected by factors such as U.S. tariff policy and the high interest rates the Fed engineered in 2022 and 2023 to rein in an outburst of inflation. Since March, job creation has fallen to an average 35,000 a month, compared to 71,000 in the year ended in March, the AP reported. Both the October and November job creation numbers, released Tuesday by the Labor Department, came in late because of the 43-day federal government shutdown. Those delays have made deliberations more difficult at the Federal Reserve, where policymakers are divided over whether the labor market needs more help from lower interest rates.
