US Unemployment Rate Rises as 64,000 Jobs Added; Fed Delays Rate Cut

Summary

In November, U.S. unemployment rose to 4.6% as the economy added only 64,000 jobs following a government shutdown Unusual Whales. Despite this labor softening, the Federal Reserve has postponed interest rate cuts, citing resilient economic growth, rising core PCE inflation (3.2%), and energy price pressures linked to international conflicts Wallstreetcn+ 3.

Impact Analysis

So they’re basically admitting that the ‘soft landing’ narrative is getting messy. While the jump to 4.6% unemployment looks scary on paper, the Fed is clearly writing it off as noise from the government shutdown Unusual Whales. What really matters here is that they’re ignoring the labor softening to fight the inflation fire—Core PCE is still creeping up, and the Iran-related energy spike is a massive headache money.udn.com+ 3. This is a classic ‘higher-for-longer’ trap. They want us to focus on resilient GDP, but look at the PMIs: manufacturing is only up because of tariff-driven hoarding, not real demand Wallstreetcn. Bottom line—the pivot is dead for the first half of 2026. If you’re holding long-duration assets expecting a rescue, you’re fighting a hawkish Fed and a new chair in Warsh who isn’t rushing to the rescue Huxiu+ 2. I’d be trimming growth and looking at energy hedges. The market is still misreading how high the bar for a cut actually is right now.