Fewer jobs were created last month, which is a far cry from what economists were predicting.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday that the U.S. added 210,000 jobs in the month of November, with reports stating economists were predicting they'd add 573,000 jobs.
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"Notable job gains occurred in professional and business services, transportation and warehousing, construction, and manufacturing," the agency said in a press release. "Employment in retail trade declined over the month."
This comes as the nation faces a new COVID surge from the omicron variant and the holiday shopping season on the horizon.
The report released showed that labor force participation ticked up, and top-line unemployment fell to 4.2%, down .4% from a month ago.
In addition, the agency said the number of unemployed persons fell by 542,000 to 6.9 million.
President Joe Biden is expected to talk about the report Friday at 10:15 a.m. ET from the White House.
