US non-farm payrolls fell by JUST 11,000 jobs in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday.

Repeat non-farm payrolls fell by JUST 11,000 in November.

And that’s a huge surprise: the analyst consensus was for a loss of  130,000, according to Reuters.

Figures for October, meanwhile, were revised to show a loss of 111,000  jobs versus the previous reportedly 190,000. (There’s been a +80,000 revision to September too).
The unemployment rate fell from 10.2 per cent to 10 per cent.

Wow.

Here’s the release.

And a quick Bloomberg take:

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — Employers in the U.S. cut the fewest jobs in November since the recession began and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell, signaling the recovery is lifting the labor market out of the worst slump in the post-World War II era.

Payrolls fell by 11,000 workers, less than the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The jobless rate declined to 10 percent.

Related links:
US services sector contracts in November – FT

This entry was posted by Miles Johnson on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 13:37 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with economics, non-farm payrolls., unemployment, us. Edit this entry.