The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a drop in unemployment from 7.3% to 7.0%. According to BLS:
Total employment as measured by the household survey increased by 818,000 over the month, following a decline of 735,000 in the prior month. This over-the-month increase in employment partly reflected the return to work of furloughed federal government employees.
BLS also revised September up and October down, leading to an increase of 8,000.
CNN Money points out that “2013 is on track to be the best year for job creation since 2005” (Kurtz, 2013).
Forbes published “this is the second month in a row of better-than-expected jobs reports. Baird says this “raises the odds that the Fed could commence the tapering process for their bond purchase program in the near-term” meaning the positive economic news may not be good for investors in the short term” (2013).
The Heritage Foundation argues the unemployment numbers are a reason to not raise the minimum wage (Sherk and Furth, 2013).
Investors reacted with the Dow jumping 200 points (Hjelmgaard, 2013).
References
Hjelmgaard, K. (2013, December 6). Dow jumps 200 points on November jobs report. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2013/12/06/stocks-friday/3888453/
Kurtz, A. (2013, December 6). Unemployment falls to 7%. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/06/news/economy/november-jobs-report/index.html
Sharf, S. (2013). Jobs Report: U.S. Economy Added 203K Jobs In November, Unemployment Down To 7%. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthasharf/2013/12/06/jobs-report-u-s-economy-added-203k-jobs-in-november-unemployment-down-to-7/
Sherk, J. & Furth, S. (2013). Heritage employment report: Slow recovery continues in November. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/12/heritage-employment-report-slow-recovery-continues-in-november
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2013, December 6). The employment situation – November 2013. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm