After two consecutive months of notable increases, employment was little changed in November (+11,000 or +0.1%). With fewer people searching for work, the unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percentage points to 6.8%.

Compared with November 2015, overall employment rose by 183,000 (+1.0%), with the number of people working part time increasing by 214,000 (+6.4%). Over the same period, the total number of hours worked was up 1.1%.

More people were employed in the finance, insurance, real estate and leasing industry, in information, culture and recreation, in the "other services" industry and in agriculture. On the other hand, declines were observed in construction, in manufacturing, as well as in transportation and warehousing.

There were fewer self-employed workers in November, while the number of employees was little changed in both the public and private sectors.