Unemployment Rises to Four-Year High
December 16, 2025 – Employment rose by 64,000 in November as the U.S. unemployment rate stands at 4.6 percent, according to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Employment rose in healthcare and construction in November, while federal government continued to lose jobs. The delayed employment report for November and a partial update for October published by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday did not include the unemployment rate and other metrics for October after the 43-day shutdown of the government prevented the collection of data from households.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for teenagers was 16.3 percent in November, an increase from September. The jobless rates for adult men (4.1 percent), adult women (4.1 percent), Whites (3.9 percent), Blacks (8.3 percent), Asians (3.6 percent), and Hispanics (5.0 percent) showed little change.
The number of people jobless less than 5 weeks was 2.5 million in November, up by 316,000 from September. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) changed little at 1.9 million in November and accounted for 24.3 percent of all unemployed people.
In November, both the labor force participation rate (62.5 percent) and the employment-population ratio (59.6 percent) were little changed from September. These measures showed little or no change over the year.
The number of people employed part time for economic reasons was 5.5 million in November, an increase of 909,000 from September. These individuals would have preferred full-time employment but were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.
The number of people not in the labor force who currently want a job, at 6.1 million in November, was little changed from September. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the four weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job.
Among those not in the labor force who wanted a job, the number of people marginally attached to the labor force, at 1.8 million in November, was little changed from September. These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months but had not looked for work in the four weeks preceding the survey. The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, also changed little at 651,000 in November.
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“The labor market is cooling,” said Guy Berger, director of economic research at the Burning Glass Institute, a company that conducts research on the labor market. “That’s a change from where we were during early summer when it looked like things were relatively stable. But data seems to be moving in the wrong direction again.”
Where Job Growth Occurred
- In November, healthcare added 46,000 jobs, in line with the average monthly gain of 39,000 over the prior 12 months. Over the month, job gains occurred in ambulatory healthcare services (+24,000), hospitals (+11,000), and nursing and residential care facilities (+11,000).
- Construction employment grew by 28,000 in November, as nonresidential specialty trade contractors added 19,000 jobs. Construction employment had changed little over the prior 12 months.
- Employment in social assistance continued to trend up in November (+18,000), primarily in individual and family services (+13,000).
- In November, employment edged down in transportation and warehousing (-18,000), reflecting a job loss in couriers and messengers (-18,000). Transportation and warehousing employment has declined by 78,000 since reaching a peak in February.
- Federal government employment continued to decrease in November (-6,000). This follows a sharp decline of 162,000 in October, as some federal employees who accepted a deferred resignation offer came off federal payrolls. Federal government employment is down by 271,000 since reaching a peak in January. (Federal employees on furlough during the government shutdown were counted as employed in the establishment survey because they received pay, even if later than usual, for the pay period that included the 12th of the month. Employees on paid leave or receiving ongoing severance pay are counted as employed in the establishment survey.)
- Employment showed little change over the month in other major industries, including mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; manufacturing; wholesale trade; retail trade; information; financial activities; professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; and other services.
The Private Sector
Private sector employment shed 32,000 jobs in November and pay was up 4.4 percent year-over-year according to the November ADP National Employment Report produced by ADP Research in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
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The ADP National Employment Report is an independent measure of the labor market based on the anonymized weekly payroll data of more than 26 million private-sector employees in the United States. ADP’s Pay Insights captures over 15 million individual pay change observations each month. Together, the jobs report and pay insights use ADP’s fine-grained data to provide a representative and high-frequency picture of the private-sector labor market.
“Hiring has been choppy of late as employers weather cautious consumers and an uncertain macroeconomic environment,” said Dr. Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “And while November’s slowdown was broad-based, it was led by a pullback among small businesses.”
“Businesses need certainty when they go and make their hiring decisions and their investment plans, and when there’s uncertainty in the economy, it just makes things harder,” Sam Kuhn, an economist with the recruitment software company Appcast, told the Washington Post. “I don’t know whether it’s necessarily that businesses are doing worse, or if it’s just the fact that they are perhaps waiting to see what could happen in 2026.”
Related: Global Employers Take Cautious Approach to Q4 Hiring
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
