Jobs report shows hiring surge as Fed weighs interest rate cut
chairman of the US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell/photo credit:Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. hiring surged in November, bouncing back from a dismal performance in the previous month and returning to strong growth.
Employers added 227,000 workers last month, exceeding economist expectations of 214,000 additional jobs, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on Friday showed. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%, which remains historically low.
The fresh data offered a key clue about the health of the economy as the nation hurtles toward end-of-the-year holidays and the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. The findings could also help determine whether the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates when officials meet later this month.
U.S. hiring has defied doomsayers for years. Stubborn inflation, high interest rates and a contentious presidential campaign have proven no match for a resilient labor market.
A weaker-than-expected reading may have raised alarm and caused observers to revisit disappointing results in October, which many economists have attributed to one-off disruptions of data collection.
The labor market hit a rare speed bump in October as the economy added 12,000 jobs, its weakest performance since December 2020.
The data appeared to offer little more than a blurry snapshot due to data-gathering disruptions, however. A combination of hurricanes and work stoppages likely caused an undercount of hiring that month, experts told ABC News.
Despite an overall slowdown this year, the labor market has continued to grow. Hiring has persisted at a solid pace; meanwhile, the unemployment rate has climbed but remains near a 50-year low.
Overall, inflation has eased and the economy has expanded, giving rise to hope that the U.S. could achieve a soft landing.
U.S. GDP grew at a 2.8% annualized rate over three months ending in September, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data last month showed. That figure fell slightly below economists’ expectations, but demonstrated brisk growth that was propelled by resilient consumer spending.
Inflation has slowed dramatically from a peak of more than 9% in June 2022, but price increases remain slightly higher than the Fed’s target of 2%.
The jobs report marks one of the last pieces of significant economic data before the Fed announces its next interest rate decision on Dec. 18.
The Fed is expected to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez/picture alliance via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The price of bitcoin dropped below $100,000 late Thursday, just a day after topping the milestone for the first time.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency continued to slide in early trading on Friday, before recovering some of the losses.
The turmoil for bitcoin did not appear to impact other major crypto coins. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, climbed nearly 5% in early trading on Friday, exceeding $4,000 for the first time since March.
The turn of fortune for bitcoin interrupted a rally set off by the election of former President Donald Trump, who is viewed as friendly toward cryptocurrency.
Since Election Day, the price of bitcoin has climbed nearly 50%. That performance far outpaces the S&P 500, which has risen about 5% over the same period.
Bitcoin has proven highly volatile since its launch about 15 years ago.
As recently as 2021, bitcoin suffered a downturn that cut its value in half. The same thing happened a year earlier, when the initial outset of the pandemic triggered a panic among investors.
“As long as the narrative stays positive, there’s always room to grow,” Bryan Armour, the director of passive strategies research at financial firm Morningstar, told ABC News before bitcoin reached $100,000.
“It’s still a highly volatile asset,” Armour added.
A surge had propelled bitcoin past $100,000 late Wednesday, just hours after Trump nominated crypto booster Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Atkins, the CEO of consulting firm Patomak Partners, serves as co-chair of the Token Alliance, a cryptocurrency advocacy organization.
Once a crypto critic, Trump has vowed to bolster the cryptocurrency sector and ease regulations enforced by the Biden administration. Trump has also promised to establish the federal government’s first National Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
In a post on Truth Social early Thursday, Trump took credit for the gains: “CONGRATULATIONS BITCOINERS!!! $100,000!!! YOU’RE WELCOME!!!.”
Trump has not spoken publicly about bitcoin since it fell below $100,000.
(NEW YORK) — Boeing will reduce the size of its total workforce by 10% over the coming months, CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a letter to employees on Friday.
That amounts to around 17,000 jobs, based on the company’s December 2023 total workforce numbers.
Ortberg said due to the workforce reductions, Boeing would not proceed with the next cycle of furloughs.
Ortberg also said the 777X program would be delayed until 2026, the 767 freighter program would end in 2027 and the company expects “substantial new losses” in Boeing Defense, Space & Security this quarter.
“Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together,” said Ortberg. “Beyond navigating our current environment, restoring our company requires tough decisions and we will have to make structural changes to ensure we can stay competitive and deliver for our customers over the long term.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Tariff threats voiced by President-elect Donald Trump this week rippled through global stocks and triggered warnings from U.S. retail executives about the risk of higher prices.
Former President George W. Bush, who congratulated Trump a day after the election, has not commented on Trump’s remarks, in keeping with a low public profile. As recently as 2021, however, Bush criticized trade barriers, lamenting the GOP under Trump as “isolationist, protectionist.”
Trump’s support for tariffs and skepticism toward global trade departs from previous Republican presidents spanning the past four decades.
Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and his father, George H.W. Bush, each venerated free trade, though in some cases they put forward policies similar to Trump’s protectionist proposals.
“Trump is not talking about free trade,” John Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University and a former senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers under Reagan. “Trump’s rhetoric is completely different.”
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, the Trump transition team said his tariff plans would boost the U.S. economy.
“In his first term, President Trump instituted tariffs against China that created jobs, spurred investment, and resulted in no inflation. President Trump will work quickly to fix and restore an economy that puts American workers by re-shoring American jobs, lowering inflation, raising real wages, lowering taxes, cutting regulations, and unshackling American energy,” Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said.
Trump late Monday said he would charge Mexico and Canada with a 25% tariff on all products coming into the United States until action is taken by those countries to stem illegal immigration and the overflow of drugs across the border.
For China, Trump said that he’d impose an additional 10% tariff on products coming to the U.S.
The declarations of trade hostility echoed vows made by Trump on the campaign trail.
Speaking at the Economic Club of Chicago in October, Trump called “tariff” the “most most beautiful word in the dictionary.”
Tariffs as high as 2,000% would safeguard key U.S. industries, such as auto manufacturing, Trump said. In the absence of tariffs, Trump added, it’s “going to be the end of Michigan.”
The favorable tone toward protectionist policies contrasts with rhetoric voiced by Trump’s Republican predecessors.
Reagan, who served in the latter years of the Cold War in the 1980s, invoked free trade as a weapon in the fight against authoritarian adversaries abroad and perceived demagogues at home.
“Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies,” then-President Ronald Reagan said in 1988, after signing a free trade agreement with Canada.
“We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends — weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world — all while cynically waving the American flag,” Reagan added.
The elder Bush, who had served as Reagan’s vice president, adopted a similar posture toward trade.
As president, George H.W. Bush sought to improve trade ties with China, and he helped establish the World Trade Organization, an international body that aims to facilitate global trade through a shared set of regulations.
In the early 1990s, Bush negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, a trade pact between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
“Free trade throughout the Americas is an idea whose time has come,” Bush said at a ceremony promoting NAFTA in December 1992.
“This century’s epic struggle between totalitarianism and democracy is over. It’s dead. Democracy has prevailed,” he added. “Today, we see unfolding around the world a revolution of hope and courage, propelled by the aspiration of ordinary people for freedom and a better life.”
The deal was ratified under Bush’s successor, President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.
During his first presidential campaign in 2016, Trump sharply criticized NAFTA, which had drawn criticism for allowing manufacturers to relocate plants abroad and lay off U.S. workers.
Weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Trump described NAFTA as “the single worst trade deal ever approved in this country.”
Like Reagan and his father, George W. Bush voiced support for free trade while in office. Since then, he has continued to back global commerce and oppose trade barriers.
“Since World War II, America has encouraged and benefited from the global advance of free markets, from the strength of democratic alliances, and from the advance of free societies,” George W. Bush said in 2017.
“Free nations are less likely to threaten and fight each other. And free trade helped make America into a global economic power,” George W. Bush added.
Despite their rhetoric, Trump’s predecessors within the Republican Party put forward some policies that resembled his proposals this week.
Reagan slapped 45% tariffs on Japanese motorcycles, and 100% tariffs on some Japanese electronics, seeking to counter that nation’s economic rise and bolster domestic industry. Reagan also placed an annual quota on the allowable number of imported Japanese cars.
“There was a huge gap between rhetoric and reality,” Hanke, the former Reagan administration economist, told ABC News.
For his part, George W. Bush attempted to protect the U.S. steel industry by placing tariffs on some steel imports. Facing pushback from the World Trade Organization and threats of retaliation from other countries, he removed the tariffs after 18 months.
