November 2023 Employment Situation — 2023-12-08

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 199,000 in November, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care and government. Employment also increased in manufacturing, reflecting the return of workers from a strike. Employment in retail trade declined. This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry. For more information about the concepts and statistical methodology used in these two surveys, see the Technical Note. The unemployment rate edged down to 3.7 percent in November, and the number of unemployed persons showed little change at 6.3 million. (See table A-1.) Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for teenagers (11.4 percent) edged down in November.