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Breaking Job News: November Jobs Report Signals Stability...With Cracks Forming

• Pete Newsome

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The labor market looks fine, but the data underlying it tell a more complicated story. In today's job headlines, host Pete Newsome breaks down the November jobs report and what it really means for hiring, employees, and workplace strategy right now. Payroll growth was modest, unemployment ticked up to 4.6%, and short-term unemployment jumped, often an early warning sign of disruption. The biggest red flag? A sharp rise in involuntary part-time work reveals that many employers are cutting hours rather than adding full-time roles.

Pete also digs into where jobs are growing and where they are shrinking. Healthcare and construction continue to add jobs, while transportation and warehousing pull back as demand normalizes. Then he zooms out to employee sentiment. ADP data shows motivation and commitment falling for the fourth straight month, with most sectors weakening and knowledge workers feeling the strain. Manufacturing shows improvement, and healthcare and education remain resilient, but overall engagement is slipping rather than strengthening.

For leaders, this matters. Retention may look stable on paper, but many employees are staying because they have fewer options, not because they're energized. Pete wraps with an early, cautiously optimistic signal from ADP's weekly hiring data, suggesting momentum may be stabilizing, and why now is the moment to focus on trust, workload clarity, and growth paths.

News Articles:
1. BLS Employment Situation Summary: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
2. ADP NER Pulse: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/adp-national-employment-report-preliminary-estimate-november-29-2025-302642779.html
3. ADP Employee Sentiment: https://www.adpresearch.com/employee-sentiment-fell-in-december/

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Pete Newsome:

Today's headlines include three different data sources and one clear message. The job market isn't collapsing, but it's not thriving either. Let's start with the big story of the day, which is the much anticipated November jobs report released this morning. In November, 64,000 jobs were added. And that sounds like a good thing, but not so much when you consider 105,000 jobs were lost in October. And when you add those together, it's a big net negative. So we can't consider it a rebound. It's perhaps a stabilization, but even that's a stretch because when you consider the other numbers, it's just not a good trend that is going on right now. Unemployment increased to 4.6%. And that is historically moderate, but it's clearly higher than it was this time a year ago. While those numbers are what gets most of the attention, there were two things that really jumped out at me beneath the surface. And one is the number of people jobless for less than five weeks.

Pete Newsome:

That increased by 316,000. And that is a big sign of new job losses, stalled job transitions, and more people entering unemployment right now, not what happened in the past. And then there's ours. Part-time work for economic reasons, meaning people are working part-time, not by choice, that increased by 909,000. I mean, that should really be the headline of this story. People are having to take on multiple jobs, not because they want to, because they have to. And that number is now at 5.5 million. So not a good trend at all from this report. Now there were a couple of bright spots. Healthcare added 46,000 jobs, and construction added 28,000 jobs. The biggest loser was transportation warehousing that lost 18,000 jobs. So that reflects a continued pullback in logistics and delivery. So the bottom line is this is a job market that's mostly stagnant, but is clearly not heading in the direction that we need it to.

Pete Newsome:

And beyond the data, we see more of the same when considering how workers are actually feeling. Here's the problem no jobs report can show you. Employees are checking out even when they're still showing up. ADP's employee motivation and commitment index fell again in December, the fourth straight monthly decline, dropping to its lowest level since June. Cinnam weakened in seven out of ten sectors, with real estate standing out as the weakest performer, dropping 21 points to 103. I mean, that's just a huge percentage decline, and that's its lowest reading since July. That really tells us that workers in that area are just feeling the effects of how volatile the conditions are right now. It's really weighing heavily on them. Not all sectors struggled. Manufacturing posted the strongest improvement, jumping 13 points, and educational services and healthcare and social assistance also trended up. So we'll acknowledge the positives where they exist. Sentiment was split among the different types of jobs people hold.

Pete Newsome:

Knowledge workers saw motivation and commitment fall for the second month in a row, while skilled task workers and repetitive task workers saw a slight increase. According to ADP research, the overall picture shows work feeling more like a chore for many employees, with fewer workers describing high levels of motivation and commitment compared to the late summer highs. This is four straight months of a decline, and it tells us that engagement is rapidly eroding. And unfortunately for workers, many are stuck right now because there's fewer openings. They aren't staying by choice, they're staying because they have to. So if you're an employer, don't take what may be a positive uh temporary retention as an indication that you're doing something right. Maybe you are, but everyone needs to remember what happened in 2022. The companies that weren't taking care of their workers were seeing them leave in droves. And look, the pendulum is clearly in the uh favor of the employers right now, but that will swing back at some point. Make sure you're doing the right things now so you'll be able to retain your employees when it shifts in the other direction.

Pete Newsome:

But let's close on some good news. There were some positive job numbers that came out this morning. ADP's NER Pulse, which tracks weekly private sector employment trends, showed an increase of 16,250 jobs per week on a four-week moving average for the period ending November 29th. That's notable because it followed four straight weeks of job losses earlier in November. Now there's an important caveat to this. ADP explicitly labels these numbers as preliminary, meaning they can change as new data is added. This pulse report uses a four-week moving average with a two-week lag to improve completeness and accuracy. So they're trying to do the right things with it, but they will change the numbers if they see fit. So let's consider this as directionally positive at best right now.

Pete Newsome:

And we'll monitor it closely in the weeks ahead. But before we go today, here's a fun fact. This is an interesting fact. The average worker spends at least 50 minutes a day looking for lost items and files. I believe it. I think it might be more in some cases. I know I felt like that on some days where it seems like I spend way too much time doing that. So, figure out a way to be more efficient, more organized. I need to practice what I preach there. So thank you for listening today. Please like, subscribe, share with anyone you believe might be interested, and I look forward to talking to you soon.