The Labor Department on Friday said the unemployment rate fell to 4.6% in November, reaching its lowest level since August 2007. The closely watched U-6 rate—a broad measure of underemployment that includes part-time workers looking for full employment and people who say they would enter the job market if better opportunities were available—dropped to a nearly nine-year low of 9.3%.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/little-slack-but-not-much-heat-in-labor-market-1480694166
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...a broadly upbeat performance that could mask underlying soft spots in the labor market.
...those gains have been uneven across the nation and across business sectors, pushing swaths of people to the sidelines and by many measures leaving the economy short of prerecession norms.
...declining participation in the labor force is one of the nation’s more worrisome economic trends, highlighting crosscurrents that have lifted the prospects of many Americans while creating new challenges for others.
...Among traditionally blue-collar professions, construction has been perhaps the strongest with 155,000 new jobs in the last 12 months.
...“companies that have good benefits...attract some better people...”
...labor market getting tighter for service workers...
“It’s a solid report that has a couple of weak spots...”
A slowdown in hiring, meanwhile, wouldn’t be unexpected for a labor market nearing full employment...
Mr. Trump is set to take office amid the longest uninterrupted stretch of hiring on record. It also appears he will inherit one of the lowest jobless rates of any incoming administration since World War II. By comparison, the headline rate was 3.9% when George W. Bush was elected in 2000 and 6.8% when Barack Obama won office in 2008.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-nonfarm-payrolls-rose-178-000-in-november-unemployment-rate-4-6-1480685541
