America's payrolls snapped out of a two-month hurricane-induced funk in November and grew by 215,000, the most since July. The unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent.
The fresh snapshot of the jobs situation by the Labor Department on Friday suggested that employers were feeling much better about hiring now that energy prices have retreated from record highs and the energy supply and transportation disruptions from the trio of Gulf Coast hurricanes are easing.
The pickup in employment in November came after two dreary months where hiring turned lethargic because of the devastating storms.
In October, payrolls grew by just 44,000, even less than the government first reported a month ago. But September's showing - a month that bore the brunt of Katrina, the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history - showed that jobs actually grew by 17,000, according to revised figures released Friday. That's an improvement from the loss of 8,000 jobs previously reported.
In November, employment gains were broad based. Construction, retail, leisure and hospitality, education and health services, financial activities and even manufacturing all posted job gains.
The growth in payrolls in November was slightly stronger than economists were expecting. Before the release of the report, they were forecasting a gain of around 210,000 jobs. They also predicted the unemployment rate would stay at 5 percent.
"The job market has clearly recovered from the setbacks and dislocations caused by the series of hurricanes," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. He was confident that the momentum on job growth would be maintained in the coming months.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his colleagues, at their Nov. 1 meeting, maintained that the hurricanes would only have a temporary depressing effect on employment and production. Friday's report - along with other recent economic news - has buttressed that notion.
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