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 establishment explained in delayed reports The unemployment rate rose to highest since Both the October and November job creation numbers issued Tuesday by the Labor Department came in late because of the -day federal ruling body shutdown THIS IS A URGENT NEWS UPDATE AP s earlier story follows below WASHINGTON AP The U S job area 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 territory demands more help from lower interest rates Their deliberations are rendered more challenging because official reports on the economic system s wellness 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 facts 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 established that the economic system created fewer jobs than originally announced 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 released Since March job creation has fallen farther to an average a month During the - hiring boom that followed COVID- lockdowns by contrast the economic system 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 help 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 commented 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 chosen cooling in the logistics and transportation markets specifically because we ve seen automation in those sectors robotics Worries about the job region 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 executives refused to go along with the move the bulk dissents in six years Particular Fed executives 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 industry is even weaker than it appeared Leadership information show that the financial market has added less than jobs a month since April But even that overstates the pace of hiring Powell noted 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 arena that seems to have major downside risks Powell recounted reporters Because of the ruling 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 analysis on Nov seven weeks late It will publish selected of the October material including a count of the jobs created that month by businesses nonprofits and authorities agencies along with the November description 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 cabinet jobs reflecting the delayed impact of billionaire Elon Musk s purge of the federal workforce as the head of the Department of Cabinet 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 executive 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 account