The December 2024 Jobs Report & November 2024 JOLTS: The Current U.S. Employment Situation

2024 ended on a high note for the job market: The BLS’s latest Employment Situation Summary reported total nonfarm payroll employment increasing by 256,000 last month – exceeding Dow Jones’ forecast of 155,000 – and the unemployment rate decreasing to 4.1%. The number of unemployed people decreased to 6.9 million.

The November 2024 Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS) showed job openings increasing to 8.1 million compared to October 2024 (job openings for October were also revised up to 7.8 million). Hires decreased to 5.3 million and total separations decreased to 5.1 million. The hires rate and total separations rate both dipped slightly to 3.3% and 3.2%, respectively.

Here are more takeaways from the December 2024 jobs report and November 2024 JOLTS:

• In November, job openings grew significantly in professional and business services by 273,000 and finance and insurance by 105,000; information job openings decreased by 89,000.
• Not surprisingly, retail trade employment rebounded, adding 43,000 jobs in December after a loss of 29,000 jobs in November.
• The BLS published seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for January 2024–November 2024, though only two months were changed: March (+0.1% to 3.9%) and July (-0.1% to 4.2%).
• Average hourly earnings increased by 0.3% to $35.69.

What industries are hiring now? As mentioned above, retail trade bounced back last month, and healthcare and social assistance, leisure and hospitality, and government held strong. Manufacturing employment decreased by 13,000.

In a statement released this morning, President Joe Biden said, “This has been a hard-fought recovery, but we’ve made progress for working families, showing what can be accomplished when we build from the middle out and bottom up.”

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