November 2019 Economic Report

Zac Reinke

December 10, 2019

The November 2019 Economic Report below was created just for you, employers. It is fueled by information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, Yahoo Finance, and FedPrimeRate.com so that you can make better hiring decisions. Below the report, check out this month’s hiring tip about poor fitting team members.

Hiring Tip

It’s great when your team is running smoothly, but what should you do when a team member is a poor fit? “No matter how talented or intelligent an employee may be, if they aren’t in a job that allows them to leverage their personal skills and attributions, they won’t meet their full potential or their employer’s needs,” says Business News Daily. Here are a few things you can do when you discover that you have one or more people in the wrong role.

1. Create clear and compelling statements for your mission, vision, and values. This way, all your team members know why they’re coming to work, where you’re all going together, and agree on how they will behave. (For help creating a mission statement, read this.)
2. Establish goals, make a plan with steps to execute those goals, and set up ways to hold people accountable. (If you want to learn how to set SMART goals, click here.)
3. Redefine roles and responsibilities to get the right people in the right roles. Respectfully let people go who are not a culture fit.

Read more.

Summary

If you’re unable to view the November 2019 Economic Report, here’s a summary:

• The unemployment rate, at 3.5%, and the number of unemployed persons, at 5.8 million, changed little in November.
• Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 266,000. Job growth has averaged 180,000/month so far in 2019, compared with an average monthly gain of 223,000 in 2018.
• Manufacturing added 54,000 jobs, reflecting the return of workers who were on strike in October.
• Health Care added 45,000 jobs.
• Leisure and Hospitality added 45,000 jobs.
• Professional and Technical Services added 31,000 jobs.
• Transportation and Warehousing added 16,000 jobs.
• Financial Activities added 13,000 jobs.
• Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 7 cents to $28.29. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.1%.
• U.S. job openings remained at a rate of 4.4% in September and was changed to a rate of 4.6% in August.
• Dow Jones rose by 3.3% during the month of November.
• Housing starts rose by 3.8% to 1.31 million in October.
• Consumer price index rose 0.4% in October.
• Federal prime rate remained at 4.75% in November.
• Retail inventories increased by 0.2% in September to $667 billion.
• Manufacturing hours worked per week increased by 0.1 hours to 40.5 hours.
• Manufacturing new orders increased by 0.28% from $496 billion in September to $497 billion in October.