(The Center Square) – The U.S. economy added 263,000 jobs in November, more than economists expected.

“Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, health care, and government,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. “Employment declined in retail trade and in transportation and warehousing.”

The unemployment rate remained steady at 3.7 percent, with about 6 million unemployed Americans seeking work.

“Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.4 percent), adult women (3.3 percent), teenagers (11.3 percent), Whites (3.2 percent), Blacks (5.7 percent), Asians (2.7 percent), and Hispanics (3.9 percent) showed little or no change over the Month,” BLS said. “Among the unemployed, the number of permanent job losers rose by 127,000 to 1.4 million in November. The number of persons on temporary layoff changed little at 803,000.”

On top of that, there are many Americans who would like a job but have given up looking.

“Among those not in the labor force who wanted a job, the number of persons marginally attached to the labor force held at 1.5 million in November,” BLS said. “These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months but had not looked for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, was 405,000 in November, little changed from the previous month.”

Job growth varied by sector.

“Leisure and hospitality added 88,000 jobs in November, including a gain of 62,000 in food services and drinking places,” BLS said. “Leisure and hospitality has added an average of 82,000 jobs per month thus far this year, less than half the average gain of 196,000 jobs per month in 2021. Employment in leisure and hospitality is below its pre-pandemic February 2020 level by 980,000, or 5.8 percent. In November, employment in health care rose by 45,000, with gains in ambulatory health care services (+23,000), hospitals (+11,000), and nursing and residential care facilities (+10,000). So far in 2022, health care employment has increased by an average of 47,000 per month, well above the 2021 average monthly gain of 9,000.”

Unemployment has remained relatively low all year.

“Monthly job growth has averaged 392,000 thus far in 2022, compared with 562,000 per month in 2021,” BLS said.