The U.S. economy added 155,000 new jobs in November, while unemployment remained steady at 3.7 percent, according to numbers released Friday by the Labor Department.
Job growth has slowed as the economy nears full capacity, but recent months have still seen hundreds of thousands of jobs added. An average of 170,000 jobs were added in September and October. The economy has added jobs for 98 months in a row since October 2010.
The stock markets earlier this week amid new fears of a trade war between the U.S. and China. President Trump has claimed Beijing wants to make a deal to ward off that possibility, but many investors are taking a wait-and-see approach to the potential for such a deal.
Despite November’s less-robust job growth, the Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates for the fourth time this year at its next meeting later this month.