The US job market beat expectations again in November, hiring 263,000 people, mostly in the services sector.
Leisure and hospitality top category The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 88,000 jobs have been added. About 62,000 of them were in the food service industry, according to the report.
Health care and social assistance was the second largest category last month, adding more than 68,000 jobs. Combining these groups with education in broader categories, as some economists do, raises profits to 82,000.
Betsy Stevenson, a professor at the University of Michigan and former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the strength of these sectors reflects how the economy still reacts to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. said to indicate whether
“If you look at where job growth has been in this report, 170,000 of those jobs are in two sectors where we need people: education and health services, which have barely recovered to pre-pandemic levels; and leisure and hospitality, which have not recovered to employment levels close to pre-pandemic levels,” Stevenson said.
Government employment also had a strong month, adding 42,000 jobs.
Despite headline beats and strength in the services sector, the economy still had its weaknesses. Both the retail and transportation and warehousing sectors lost jobs last month.
These declines are due to retailers and e-commerce companies struggling with changes in inventory management and consumer spending after the online shopping boom during the pandemic.
“So I think there are some sectors that are still recovering and others that are outperforming skiing,” Stevenson said.
