Nonfarm payrolls increased 211,000 last month, the Labor Department said Friday. September and October data was revised to show 35,000 more jobs than previously reported.
The unemployment rate held at a 7½-year low of 5 percent, even as people returned to the labor force in a sign of confidence in the jobs market. The jobless rate is in a range many Fed officials see as consistent with full employment and has dropped 0.7 of a percentage point this year.
"We cleared the last hurdle for a rate increase. The Fed was looking for some positive movement on wages, and we got a little bit of that. There is absolutely nothing in this report that will keep the Fed from raising rates," said Chris Gaffney, president at EverBank World Markets in St. Louis.
