U.S. jobless rate sinks to 4.2%

America's unemployment rate tumbled last month to its lowest point since the pandemic struck, even as employers appeared to slow their hiring — a mixed picture that pointed to a resilient economy that's putting more people to work.

The government reported Friday that businesses and other employers added just 210,000 jobs in November, the weakest monthly gain in nearly a year and less than half of October's increase of 546,000.

But other data from the U.S. Department of Labor's report painted a brighter picture. The unemployment rate plummeted from 4.6 percent to 4.2 percent as a substantial number of Americans — 1.1 million — said they found jobs last month.

The U.S. economy still remains under threat from a spike in inflation, shortages of labor and supplies and the potential impact of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

But for now, Americans are spending freely, and the economy is forecast to expand at a 7 percent annual rate in the final three months of the year, a sharp rebound from the 2.1 percent pace in the previous quarter, when the delta variant hobbled growth.

Employers in some sectors, such as restaurants, bars and hotels, pulled back on hiring in November.

By contrast, job growth remained solid in areas such as transportation and warehousing, which are benefiting from the growth of online commerce.

The fall in the unemployment rate was particularly encouraging because it coincided with an influx of a half-million job-seekers into the labor force, most of whom quickly found work.

“That’s good news for job seekers and workers, and for businesses, too," said Julia Pollak, chief economist at online jobs site ZipRecruiter.

“It looks like the supply constraints are easing a bit with the unemployment rate low and wage growth high” — two factors that often encourage people to search for work.