The BLS released the November jobs report earlier today.  The key takeaways are that the unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 5 % and that 211,000 new jobs were created.  In addition, the labor force participation rate ticked up slightly to 62.5 percent.  All of this is good news.

Even though nothing spectacular happened to the unemployment rate in November, the picture of the last year tells a different story. In the last twelve months, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.8 percent.  In the last two years, the unemployment rate fell two percentage points!

In November, 211,000 new jobs were created. This job growth was close to the average of 237,000 in the past twelve months. Gains occurred in construction, professional services, and health care.  Losses occurred in the mining and the information sectors.

It may seem odd that there are new jobs created but the unemployment rate stayed constant. This is because the unemployment rate is percentage based on the labor force, which grew by about 300,000 workers in November.