Unemployment rate hit a four-year high last month
Commuters at the Fort Totten Metro station in Washington
(CNN) — The US labor market grew even more exclusive in November.
Unemployment rose to a four-year high of 4.6% in November, and the economy added 64,000 jobs last month, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Tuesday.
Last month’s job gains, which came in higher than expected, followed a 105,000-job loss for October, according to a jobs report that was one of the most atypical in recent history.
The longest-ever federal shutdown cast a large shadow over the critical economic indicator. Statistical agencies were largely dark from October 1 to November 12 and were unable to collect, process and analyze data. As such, the BLS did not release a separate jobs report for October.
And, for the first time in nearly 80 years, no unemployment rate was released for October due to a lack of data collection during the shutdown.
Not only was November’s report delayed from its original release date of December 5, but it also came packaged with what partial data could be collected for October.
However, that October employment tally came with come asterisks of its own: The hefty employment loss was entirely due to the Trump administration’s cutbacks of the federal workforce.
In October, the federal employment sector had a reported loss of 162,000 jobs, a result of the “fork in the road” deferred resignations from the Department of Government Efficiency that were put in place earlier this year but were effective as of September 30.
Economists were looking for a net gain of 40,000 jobs for November and for the unemployment rate to stay unchanged from its September rate of 4.4%, according to FactSet.
This story is developing and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
