By Tom Burnett CFA
On December 4, 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Employment Report for November. The Report indicated that the economy added 245,000 new jobs for the month. Seasonally adjusted employment now stands at 142.6 million, down 9.8 million from the pre-Covid employment level in February. Essentially, the economy has now made back about half the jobs that were lost compared to the February level. The reports for September and October were revised upward by a combined 11,000 from earlier reports.
The unemployment rate dropped from 6.9% in October to 6.7% in November. The rate was 3.5% in February, before climbing to a maximum rate of 14.7% in April. There are now 10.7 million unemployed workers, compared to just 5.8 million in the February report.
Manufacturing employment continued to recover with an increase of 27,000 for the month, but the November level is down by 509,000 from February and 500,000 from the November 2019 totals. Manufacturing employment now stands at 12.3 million, approximately 8.5% of the total employment number.
The next BLS Employment Report will be issued on January 8, 2021.
Tom Burnett CFA is Director of Research