The US added 210,000 jobs in November - well below expectations - but remarkably the unemployment rate dropped precipitously from 4.6% to 4.2%. Also the number of persons working rose by 1.1M and the number of adults neither working nor seeking work fell by 473,000.

Accordingly, the employment rate rose to 78.8%, approaching the pre-pandemic level of 80.4%.

Biggest job gains occurred in professional and business services, transportation and warehousing, construction and manufacturing.

Leisure and hospitality establishments added 23,000 jobs.

The share of employed persons working remotely fell by 0.3% to 11.3%.

The average workweek increased by 0.1 hour to 34.8 hours, and average hourly earnings increased by $0.08 to $31.03.