by Calculated Risk on 12/02/2011 08:30:00 AM

From MarketWatch: U.S. economy adds 120,000 jobs in November

The U.S. gained 120,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate fell to 8.6% from 9.0%, the Labor Department said Friday. The government also revised jobs data for October and September to show that 72,000 additional jobs were created. ... Hiring in October was revised up to 100,000 from 80,000 and the job gains in September were revised up to 210,00 from 158,000. In November, companies in the private sector hired 140,000 workers ... Government cut 20,000 jobs...

Click on graph for larger image.

The following graph shows the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate declined to 8.6%.

Some of the decline in in the unemployment rate was related to a decline in the number of workers in the labor force.

I'll have more on this soon (the BLS website is having a problem).

The second graph shows the job losses from the start of the employment recession, in percentage terms. The dotted line is ex-Census hiring.

The red line is moving slowly upwards.

This was still a weak report, and slightly below consensus. There were decent upwards revisions to the September and October reports. I'll have much more soon ...