US jobless report seen holding

The U.S. Department of Labour will release the Employment Situation report for November on Friday morning, hot on the heels of a positive ISM manufacturing report but rising weekly jobless claims over the past month. This is one of the most widely followed economic reports each month by investors, traders, economists, business owners and even by politicians.

The ISM Manufacturing Report on Business showed that the Employment Index grew for the 17th consecutive month, registering 54.9% in November, a decrease of 0.6 points below the October reading of 55.5%. Economists expect the unemployment rate to hold consistent with its October reading of 5.8%. In October the largest job growth was in food services, drinking places, retail trade and health care. Employment showed little change in logging, mining, wholesale trade, information, financial activities and government.

ADP’s Employment report for November will come out on Wednesday. It has a consensus estimate of 225,000 and the previous reading was 230,000. In October, the ADP report suggested that small businesses added 102,000 jobs, followed by a gain of 122,000 for medium businesses and a gain of 5,000 from large businesses. Service-providing employment rose by 181,000 jobs in October.