The November 2025 Jobs Report & October 2025 JOLTS: The Current U.S. Employment Situation

Industry Insights

The BLS Employment Situation Summary is back: 64,000 jobs were added in November and the unemployment rate rose to 4.6% – the highest it’s been since September 2021. The number of unemployed persons increased to 7.8M.

Change in Nonfarm Payroll Employment

July ’25	73K
August ’25	22K
September ’25	119K
October ’25	--
November ’25	64K

Unemployment Rate

July ’25	4.2%
August ’25	4.3%
September ’25	4.4%
October ’25	--
November ’25	4.6%

The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), released Dec. 9, showed 7.67 million job openings on the last business day of October. This is a slight increase compared to September’s total of 7.66 million. Hires (5.15 million) and total separations (5.05 million) both decreased by approximately 200K.

Number of Unemployed Persons

July ’25	7.2M
August ’25	7.4M
September ’25	7.6M
October ’25	--
November ’25	7.8M

Here are more highlights from both the Employment Situation Summary and JOLTS:

The quits rate dipped below 2% to 1.8%, the lowest we’ve seen since May 2020.
Wages increased by $0.05, or 0.1%, to $36.86.
August and September’s change in total nonfarm payroll employment numbers were also revised down by a combined 33K.

What are the latest reports showing for specific industries?

Per the JOLTS, total layoffs and discharges increased by 73K, notably in leisure and hospitality (117K) and accommodation and food services (130K). Job openings spiked by 239K in trade, transportation, and utilities as well as in retail trade by 142K; professional and business services job openings decreased by 114K, along with federal government jobs by 25K.

Employment increased significantly in health care and social assistance and construction and decreased notably in transportation and warehousing (almost entirely due to losses of courier and messenger jobs) and leisure and hospitality.

Change in Employment by Industry

Industry	November
Construction	28K
Manufacturing	-5K
Motor Vehicles & Parts	-4.9K
Retail Trade	6.2K
Transportation & Warehousing	-17.7K
Utilities	1K
Information	-4K
Financial Activities	-2K
Professional & Business Services	12K
Health Care & Social Assistance	64K
Leisure & Hospitality	-12K
Other Services	3K
Government	-5K

“The question for the past several months has been whether the labor market would take a sharp turn for the worse, of the sort usually associated with a recession,” wrote Ben Casselman of The New York Times. “This report isn’t enough to conclude we’ve hit that kind of turning point. But it certainly raises some red flags.”

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