‘Fed's mouthpiece’ Nick Timiraos: As of November, the private sector has averaged an increase of 44,000 jobs over the past six months (unchanged from October). This marks the slowest six-month hiring pace in the post-pandemic reopening cycle. Meanwhile, unrounded data shows that the unemployment rate rose to 4.573% in November, up 13 basis points from 4.440% in September. Powell stated last week that the Federal Reserve believes its policy setting will stabilize the unemployment rate or ‘only rise by another 0.1 or 0.2 percentage points.’