WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. job growth bounced back in November after weak numbers in the previous month, with employers adding 227,000 jobs and the unemployment rate ticking up to 4.2 percent, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday.
Employment trended up in health care, leisure and hospitality, government, and social assistance, according to the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Retail trade lost jobs.
Job growth in October was upwardly revised by 24,000 to 36,000. The weak numbers reflected the effects of two hurricanes and a Boeing strike.
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for September was revised up by 32,000, to a gain of 255,000. With these revisions, employment in September and October combined is 56,000 higher than previously reported.
The unemployment rate, at 4.2 percent, increased slightly compared to the 4.1 percent in October. The measure was higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.7 percent.
In November, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 13 cents, or 0.4 percent, to 35.61 U.S. dollars. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.0 percent.
The U.S. Federal Reserve will hold its final monetary policy meeting of the year on Dec. 17-18. A still encouraging labor market report suggests that the central bank doesn't need to rush into cutting rates.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group's FedWatch Tool, which acts as a barometer for the market's expectation of the Fed funds target rate, shows that as of Friday noon, the market expects an 85 percent probability that the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points at the next meeting.
