US hiring stays strong, complicating Fed’s inflation fight

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s employers kept hiring briskly in November despite high inflation and a slow-growing economy — a sign of resilience in the face of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes. The economy added 263,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate stayed 3.7%, still near a 53-year low. November’s job growth dipped only slightly from October’s 284,000 gain. Last month’s hiring amounted to a substantial increase. All year, as inflation has surged and the Fed has imposed ever-higher borrowing rates, America’s labor market has defied skeptics, adding hundreds of thousands of jobs, month after month. With not enough people available to fill jobs, businesses are having to offer higher pay to attract and keep workers.