The national jobs report issued Friday morning is the last one of the year. It provides a snapshot on the economy that President-elect Donald Trump will inherit in January.
According to the report from the U.S. Labor Department, employers added 227,000 jobs in November, surpassing expectations of 200,000 new jobs and signaling a rebound in the labor market.
It's a big jump from October, which saw just 36,000 new jobs added, in part due to strikes and the impact of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
The data shows employment trended up in health care, leisure and hospitality, government, and social assistance, while retail trade lost jobs.
Meantime, both the unemployment rate, at 4.2%, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.1 million, changed little in November, while hourly wages are also up 4% year-over-year.
A year ago, the jobless rate was slightly lower at 3.7% and the number of unemployed people was 6.3 million.
Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said the report "[confirms] what we know to be true: that this is a strong, stable economy and workers are benefiting."
"Wage growth continues to outpace inflation, with nominal wages increasing by 0.4 percent in November and annual growth of 4.0 percent over the past 12 months," Su said in a statement. "This means that most working Americans have more money in their pockets, across industries and occupations."
Su added that the unemployment rate remains at the lowest range we've seen in 50 years.
"As the Biden-Harris administration prepares to hand off one of the strongest economies in history to the next administration, we do so having created millions of good-paying jobs, strengthened the middle class and ensured broad-based growth following a pandemic that threated to endanger the United States' position as the strongest economy in the world," she said. "This recovery was not promised, but rather it was delivered with strong leadership and investment in working people."