Job Slump Deepened In October And November, Belated Report Shows

Job creation slowed and the unemployment rate rose this autumn, according to data delayed by the government shutdown.

The U.S. economy lost 105,000 jobs in October and added 64,000 in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday. The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November from 4.4% in September, reaching a fresh high since 2021.

November’s job creation and the unemployment rate were both higher than forecasters anticipated, according to a survey of U.S. economists by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

The report, which had been delayed by the government shutdown, showed a continuation of the trends that began this summer: a sharp slowdown in hiring due to uncertainty among business leaders about tariff policy, as well as from President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration. October was the third month this year in which the economy lost jobs. Before June, U.S. employers had added jobs every month since the pandemic.

The report also highlighted the impact of deferred government layoffs made earlier in the year when President Donald Trump took office and began slashing federal programs and jobs, offering many of them deferred buyouts that took effect in October.