Senior Economist Alvin Liew reviews the release of US November’s Nonfarm Payrolls.

Key takeaways

“The US jobs creation engine again exceeded expectations, adding 263,000 jobs in Nov while the jobless rate stayed at 3.7% (same as Oct), even as labor force participation rate dipped 0.1pt to 62.1%, matching the lowest this year while the unemployed numbers fell by 48,000 to 6.01 million. Wage growth accelerated in Nov, to 0.6% m/m, 5.1% y/y (above Bloomberg estimates and Oct prints).”

“The Nov jobs report pointed to continued hiring momentum in most sectors and wage growth back above 5% in a still tight labor market environment, reinforcing the case for the Federal Reserve (Fed) to keep to its hiking stance at the Dec FOMC. That said, we and the markets still assign a high probability the Fed will dial down the rate hike magnitude to 50-bps in Dec.”