The U.S. economy added 64,000 jobs in November, which was more than the expected 50,000 jobs, but unemployment increased to 4.6%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The last available unemployment rate was in September, at 4.4%, and economists expected it to be 4.5% for November, Business Insider reported. An October unemployment rate won’t be published by BLS because the agency was unable to survey households during the government shutdown from October to mid-November.
There was a decline of 105,000 jobs in October, BLS reported, largely due to a drop in federal government workers who were formally coming off the payrolls after the job cuts from earlier this year.
The November report was delayed by BLS from Dec. 5 to Dec. 16 to help with data collection and processing.
The latest report revised September’s job growth from 119,000 to 108,000, and August had a larger loss than previously estimated, from a drop of 4,000 to a decrease of 26,000.
“With these revisions, employment in August and September combined is 33,000 lower than previously reported,” BLS said.