Dean Wegner, the founder and CEO of Authentic American, recently appeared on Varney & Co. to discuss the benefits of buying American-made products—how it supports jobs, helps the economy, and decreases reliance on China.
The payroll company ADP announced on Wednesday that November saw a loss of 32,000 jobs.
This decline is not what economists anticipated, as they were predicting an increase of 10,000 jobs. Additionally, the job count for the previous month has been adjusted upwards, from an initial 42,000 to 47,000.
“Employment trends have been quite unstable recently as employers deal with cautious consumers amidst an unpredictable economic climate,” said Nella Richardson, ADP’s chief economist. “The slowdown experienced in November was broad-based, particularly affecting small and medium businesses.”
In contrast, despite job losses overall, sectors like education and health services actually gained 33,000 jobs. Moreover, leisure and hospitality saw an increase of 13,000 jobs, while natural resources and mining added 8,000. The trade, transportation, and utility sectors added just 1,000 jobs.
On the flip side, professional and business services lost 26,000 jobs, with the information sector shedding 20,000 and manufacturing dropping 18,000. Meanwhile, both construction and financial activities lost 9,000 jobs, and other services saw a reduction of 4,000.
Interestingly, large firms with over 500 employees added 39,000 jobs in November, while companies with between 50 and 499 employees contributed 51,000. However, there was a substantial loss of 120,000 jobs in businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
Wage growth has also slowed in November. For those who remained in their jobs, wages grew by 4.4%, a slight drop from October’s 4.5%. For those who switched jobs, the growth fell to 6.3% from 6.7% the previous month.
“This is no longer a low-unemployment market; layoffs are becoming more common,” remarked Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “Small businesses are particularly feeling the pinch from tariffs and uncertainty this year, leading them to cut staff to protect their profits.”
According to Long, the trend of layoffs is expected to persist into the first half of 2026 until there’s more clarity on tariffs and confidence regarding new hiring.
These figures are largely derived from government civilian payroll calculations provided by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS is set to release important employment data for November on December 16th. This report had been delayed from its original date of December 5th due to the recent government shutdown, which obstructed the collection of essential data for the unemployment rate.
