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WASHINGTON: Job creations were much higher than expected in November in the United States, the Labor Department announced on Friday, the labor market remaining solid despite measures taken to slow economic activity in order to curb the ‘inflation.

In November, 263,000 jobs were created in the United States, well above the 200,000 that analysts had expected.

“Notable job gains were made in leisure and hospitality, healthcare and government. Employment declined in retail and in transportation and logistics,” the Department of Labor detailed. Commerce in its press release.

By October, 284,000 jobs had been created, according to upwardly revised data also released on Friday. September job creations were however revised downwards, to 269,000 against 315,000 initially announced. Over these two months, 23,000 fewer jobs than announced have been created.

The unemployment rate remained stable at 3.7% in November, a very low level.

“The data points to continued positive momentum in employment growth and still high wages,” Rubeela Farooqi, economist for HFE, commented in a note.

The excellent health of the labor market raises questions about the fight against inflation led by the American central bank (Fed).

A rise in unemployment is, paradoxically, desired: this would indeed show that the labor shortage faced by American employers for a year and a half is gradually being reduced. This would go hand in hand with the slowdown in demand, necessary to ease the pressure on prices.

Layoffs in tech

US-based employers announced nearly 77,000 layoffs in November, up 127% from October, according to research by consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, released Thursday.

However, the level of jobs lost since the beginning of the year (320,173) remains one of the lowest recorded since the creation of this study in 1993.

With one exception: the tech sector, which had hired with a vengeance since the start of the pandemic thanks to the acceleration of online uses, and is now suffering a reversal of fortune.

They are by far the biggest layoffs: they were responsible for nearly two-thirds of the country’s job cuts last month, with the sector even recording its highest level of layoffs in 20 years, details the survey.

Several Silicon Valley companies, such as Meta, Twitter, Lyft, and HP, have recently announced significant workforce reductions. The giant Amazon is freezing hiring in its offices and could also lay off, according to press reports.

Recession still threatens the world’s largest economy, despite the rebound in growth in the third quarter.

The signals are mixed. On the one hand, consumption remains sustained and employment is still very solid. On the other hand, manufacturing activity contracted in November for the first time since May 2020, the ISM index showed on Thursday.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, however, was optimistic on Wednesday about the chances of bringing inflation back into line, without plunging the United States into recession.