November was a terrible month for tech jobs, with layoffs at Amazon, Meta (Facebook) at Twitter alone totaling nearly 25,000, but despite the tech staff losses, the U.S. economy is still adding jobs.
The sweeping job cuts in tech standout from the rest of the jobs figures, according to the latest data. The non farm payroll figure for November was 263,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The figure is a slight increase on October’s figure, and shows that the U.S. economy is perhaps not tightening as much as predicted following the recent interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
The consensus forecast among economists was for an increase of 200,000 jobs, according to TradingEconomics, a data provider. In October, total nonfarm payrolls increased by 261,000 and the unemployment rate rose to 3.7 percent. Since the pandemic-induced chaos, most months have seen job increases of over 300,000, with an average since 2021 of 491,000.
Unemployment remained at 3.7 percent, as forecast. According to the BLS, “notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, health care and government. Employment declined in retail trade and in transportation and warehousing.
Although retail saw a drop, the leisure and hospitality sectors added 88,000 jobs in November, including a gain of 62,000 in food services and drinking places. Another big gain was in the number of government jobs, which went up by 42,000 in November, mostly in local government. Health care also increased, with an additional 45,000 jobs in November.
According to tech jobs tracking website Layoffs.fyi, more than 51,000 tech jobs were lost in November from 196 companies. The layoffs in November alone were more than a third of the total (143,000) for 2022.
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The biggest November layoffs in tech were 11,000 at Meta, 10,000 at Amazon and 4,100 at Cisco. Twitter layoffs are hard to track, given the fast-moving nature of the company since Elon Musk took over and it being delisted, but Layoffs.fyi estimates 3,700, or half of the workforce.
Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients that: “Despite headlines about job losses in tech, the information sector added a healthy 19,000 jobs. The 30,000 decline in retail employment could be a cause for concern, however, with a 10,000 increase in employment at motor vehicle dealers more than offset by a 32,000 decline in general merchandise stores.”
The data released on Friday was the last official employment report before the Federal Reserve starts its two-day meeting on December 13. The Fed has moved the target borrowing rate significantly higher during 2022 to try and curb inflation, with several rate rises of 75 basis points (0.75 percentage points). It is expected to raise the target rate by 50 basis points in December.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hinted as much in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
Powell said: “The time for moderating the pace of rate increases may come as soon as the December meeting.”
John Luke Tyner, fixed income analyst at Aptus Capital Advisors, said in an emailed comment to Newsweek: “This report does not paint the picture of a moderating labor market. Either it’s taking longer (lagging) or simply higher interest rates aren’t impacting the labor economy as much as the market ‘hoped.'”
