SHRM*'s take on the same story:

Employment gains were driven by hiring in transportation and warehousing, business services and health care. Over half of the 22 million workers furloughed or laid off at the onset of the pandemic in March and April have now been rehired.

A growing number of workers have exhausted their state unemployment benefits and have signed up for alternative federal emergency programs due to expire at the end of the year, though Congress is edging closer to approving a new coronavirus aid package that includes money for additional unemployment insurance, among other measures.

"The labor market recovery is losing steam fast amid two alarming conditions—the recovery is still grossly incomplete, and we are entering a dangerous period for the U.S. economy as more stay-at-home orders loom," said Josh Wright, chief economist at Wrightside Advisors, an economic research and consulting firm based in New York City. "Importantly, this report covered just the first half of November, while the pandemic deteriorated significantly in the second half of the month."

The report is extremely concerning, said Julia Pollak, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter, an online employment marketplace in Santa Monica, Calif. "The weak report reflects the weather cooling, Covid surging, and fiscal support for the economy waning," she said.

The labor market recovery is clearly decelerating, and cracks are beginning to show, said Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor senior economist. "Payroll employment is 9.8 million short of pre-crisis levels—at November's pace, it would take until 2024 to return to pre-crisis employment levels."

Despite the month's smaller gains, increased headcount is still progress, said Guy Berger, principal economist at LinkedIn. "Despite major headwinds, the labor market has proved far more resilient than many anticipated. A quarter of the industries we track registered year-over-year growth, the highest share since February."

A few other things of note:

e-commerce jobs are booming, but many of those are seasonal (think Amazon warehouse type employees hired for the holidays)

93,000 census workers are no longer working

professional/business services increased, but about half are temporary jobs

leisure/hospitality dropped again, down 3.4 million since February, and not likely to rebound given current COVID restrictions

Workforce participation (people either working OR looking for a job) dropped again in November and remains far below pre-pandemic levels. Currently it's 61.5%, in February it was 63.4%.

Long term unemployment rose to 37% of total unemployment, indicating that there are people who will find it increasingly difficult to get a job, especially one that matches their prior income.

Permanent layoffs continue to rise, now at 3.7M.

"Prime working year" employment participation (ages 25-54) has declined, now 80.9% from 83% in February.

Women are most likely to have dropped out of the workforce during this period (Feb - Nov). Other research indicates this is driven by family care responsibilities and service workers being disproportionately women.



*Society of Human Resources Management