On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics posted the jobs report for November.
Unemployment rates unexpectedly jumped to 4.6%. This is the highest level since mid-2021. Furthermore, the economy added jobs mostly in part-time positions. That suggests that people are relying on the gig economy for income.
That might bring bad news for stocks. Retail firms like Costco (COST) are performing poorly on the stock market. Investors do not want to pay the 46 times price-to-earnings ratio premium when the retail sector is under pressure.
The BLS revised job figures for August down by 22,000. September job figures were revised down by 11,000, so the count fell from 119,000 to 108,000. Bond yields fell on the news. The 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) gained 55 bps to close at $87.88. The U.S. dollar index bullish fund (UUP) fell slightly. UUP stock is on a downtrend, closing at $27.90, compared to a recent high of $28.40.
Job Growth in Healthcare
The healthcare sector accounted for most of the job growth in August. This trend repeated in November.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned that this job report would have “noisiness.” The government shutdown created some unreliability in the data collection process. Investors should wait until December’s job report, set for January 9, 2026.
Investors may add bank stocks like Goldman Sachs (GS), Wells Fargo (WFC), Morgan Stanley (MS), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) shares. The economy is neither losing nor adding many jobs. That suggests a stable economy where the bank business will still perform better than other sectors as a whole.
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