U.S. Hiring Strengthened in November, Fueling Expansion

Employers add 266,000 jobs, unemployment rate drops to 50-year low of 3.5%.

The U.S. job market strengthened in November, as hiring jumped and unemployment fell, adding fuel to the economic expansion.

Employers added 266,000 jobs in November and the jobless rate fell to a 50-year low of 3.5%, matching September’s level, the Labor Department said Friday. Wages advanced 3.1% from a year earlier.

The stronger pace of hiring could help juice up the broader U.S. economy, which is still expanding but at a slower pace than last year. U.S. stock futures and government-bond yields rose Friday after the data was released.

Hiring was strong in health care, restaurants and transportation jobs. In November, manufacturers added 54,000 jobs, 41,000 of which were in auto manufacturing. General Motors Co. workers, who were on strike in October, helped drive the bounceback.

“Today’s jobs report should assuage some of the biggest market concerns about the U.S. economy,” Jason Schenker of Prestige Economics said in an analyst note.

U.S. employers have picked up the pace of hiring. Jobs have grown an average 205,000 per month in the three months through November, a pickup from the pace earlier in the year but less than 223,000 per month for the same period a year ago.