The US gained 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October; unemployment rate at 4.6%

WASHINGTON AP The United States gained a decent jobs in November but lost in October as federal workers departed after cutbacks by the Trump administration the governing body reported in delayed reports The unemployment rate rose to highest since Both the October and November job creation numbers disclosed Tuesday by the Labor Department came in late because of the -day federal leadership shutdown THIS IS A DEVELOPING NEWS UPDATE AP s earlier story follows below WASHINGTON AP The U S job industry is sluggish and confusing this fall American companies are mostly holding onto the employees they have But they re reluctant to hire new ones as they struggle to assess how to use artificial intelligence and how to adjust to President Donald Trump s unpredictable policies especially his double-digit taxes on imports from around the world The uncertainty leaves jobseekers struggling to find work or even land interviews Federal Reserve policymakers are divided over whether the labor region necessities more help from lower interest rates Their deliberations are rendered more complex because official reports on the financial market s strength are coming in late and incomplete after a -day leadership shutdown The Labor Department is expected to provide at least a little clarity when it releases November numbers on hiring and unemployment Tuesday days late Forecasters surveyed by the material firm FactSet expect that employers added an unimpressive jobs last month and that unemployment stayed at unchanged from the last rate published for September Hiring has clearly lost momentum hobbled by uncertainty over Trump s tariffs and the lingering effects of the high interest rates the Fed engineered in and to rein in an outburst of inflation Labor Department revisions in September proved that the financial system created fewer jobs than originally broadcasted in the year that ended in March That meant that employers added an average of just new jobs a month over that period not the first disclosed Since March job creation has fallen farther to an average a month During the - hiring boom that followed COVID- lockdowns by contrast the financial market was creating an average of jobs a month The unemployment rate though still modest by historical standards has risen since bottoming out at a -year low of in April Adding to the uncertainty is the growing use of artificial intelligence and other technologies that can reduce demand for workers We ve seen a lot of the businesses that we backing are stuck in that stagnant mode Are we going to hire or are we not What can we automate What do we need the human touch with revealed Matt Hobbie vice president of the staffing firm HealthSkil in Allentown Pennsylvania We re in Lehigh Valley which is a big transportation hub in eastern Pennsylvania We ve seen a few cooling in the logistics and transportation markets specifically because we ve seen automation in those sectors robotics Worries about the job area were enough to nudge the Fed into cutting its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point last week for the third time this year But three Fed functionaries refused to go along with the move the the majority dissents in six years Chosen Fed administrators are balking at further cuts while inflation remains above the central bank s target Two voted to keep the rate unchanged Stephen Miran appointed by Trump to the Fed s governing board in September voted for a bigger cut in line with what the president demands Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned after last week s rate cut that the job sphere is even weaker than it appeared Authorities statistics show that the market system has added less than jobs a month since April But even that overstates the pace of hiring Powell reported He individuals that revisions could reduce payrolls by as much as a month which would mean employers haven t been adding jobs at all instead they ve been cutting a month since the spring It s a labor industry that seems to have notable downside risks Powell reported reporters Because of the governing body shutdown the Labor Department did not release its jobs reports for September October and November on time It completely put out the September jobs account on Nov seven weeks late It will publish various of the October input including a count of the jobs created that month by businesses nonprofits and governing body agencies along with the November review Tuesday But it will not release an unemployment rate for October because it could not calculate the number during the shutdown The October numbers are expected to show a big drop in U S administration jobs reflecting the delayed impact of billionaire Elon Musk s purge of the federal workforce as the head of the Department of Governing body Efficiency or DOGE Analysts at Evercore ISI a research outfit noted in a commentary last week that about federal workers agreed to take a buyout under pressure from DOGE and that likely left the leadership when the fiscal year ended on Sept pushing down October payrolls The remaining stayed on for the rest of the calendar year and their departures will likely show up in the January jobs document