WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added 64,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, according to government data released Tuesday. The report arrived late and with unusual statistical noise after a 43-day federal government shutdown disrupted data collection and processing, Dec. 16, 2025.
Payroll growth in November followed a steep, shutdown-era swing in October, when employers cut 105,000 jobs. The October decline was driven largely by a drop in federal employment, while private-sector hiring remained modestly positive across both months.
US jobs report shows payrolls flatlining after spring surge
In the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Situation report for November 2025, officials said overall payrolls have shown little net change since April, a sign that the labor market is no longer powering the broader economy the way it did earlier in the expansion.
Private payrolls increased by 69,000 in November after rising 52,000 in October. Federal government employment, by contrast, fell by 6,000 in November after dropping 162,000 in October, as some workers who accepted deferred resignation offers rolled off the government’s payroll counts.
Health care again carried much of the month’s growth, adding 46,000 jobs in November. Construction added 28,000, while social assistance rose by 18,000. Transportation and warehousing fell by 18,000, reflecting a drop in couriers and messengers.
Shutdown distortions cloud the jobless rate and key household data
The unemployment rate rose to a four-year high, but economists warned that the shutdown made the household side of the report harder to interpret. The government did not publish an October unemployment rate because household survey data for that month were not collected, and the November household survey required methodological adjustments and produced higher-than-usual uncertainty measures, Reuters reported.
“The unemployment rate should be taken with a large grain of salt,” Nationwide Chief Economist Kathy Bostjancic said in response to the shutdown-related data disruptions.
Wages cooled, keeping the Fed’s next steps in focus
Average hourly earnings for private-sector workers edged higher in November, up 0.1% on the month and up 3.5% over the year, a slower pace than earlier in the cycle. The average workweek ticked up to 34.3 hours.
The jobs data landed days after policymakers cut borrowing costs again and signaled they want clearer evidence on where hiring and inflation are headed. The Federal Reserve’s December policy statement set the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.50%-3.75%, underscoring the central bank’s attention to a cooling labor market.
Consumer spending signals are mixed as hiring slows
With payroll gains narrowing, economists are watching whether household spending can stay resilient into early 2026. A separate Census Bureau report on October retail sales showed overall sales were virtually unchanged from the prior month, a sign that consumers may be becoming more selective as price pressures and uncertainty linger.
Past disruptions offer a reminder about “noisy” labor data
Shutdowns have complicated the labor-market picture before, and the federal government has repeatedly cautioned that survey operations and worker classifications can shift during lapses in appropriations. During the 2013 shutdown, the Labor Department issued a notice explaining delays to the Employment Situation schedule, while the BLS published a fact sheet detailing how shutdown-affected workers are treated in its surveys.
At the same time, analysts warned that the shutdown-era numbers could be difficult to parse in real time. In a preview ahead of that release, Reuters noted in 2013 that a shutdown can muddy the jobs report and complicate month-to-month comparisons.
After the 2018-19 lapse in funding, the BLS also published a Q&A on how the partial shutdown affected labor-market estimates, reinforcing a consistent message: the headline figures can still be useful, but disruptions raise uncertainty and can blur short-term trends.
For now, economists say the cleanest signal may be the private-sector trend: modest gains, concentrated in a handful of service industries, paired with a jobless rate that is rising — but potentially overstated due to shutdown-driven distortions.
