Commuters in Washington, D.C., in November. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a long-awaited trove of federal jobs data on Tuesday.Al Drago / Bloomberg /Getty Images

The United States shed 105,000 jobs in October and added 64,000 jobs in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday, lifting a monthslong fog that had shrouded the labor market.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, the highest since September 2021.

The national employment picture already looked fragile before Tuesday`s report. Jobs reports in June and August showed net job losses, the first time since 2020 that there have been two months of contractions before November.

September`s report, the last one before the government shutdown, showed a more modest increase of 119,000 jobs and a little changed unemployment rate of 4.4%.

Initial payroll data from two recent months was also revised down Tuesday. "Employment in August and September combined is 33,000 lower than previously reported," BLS wrote in a news release.

Economists had broadly expected to see net job losses overall in October, followed by a slight rebound and gains in November.

Federal government employment saw "​​a sharp decline of 162,000 in October, as some federal employees who accepted a deferred resignation offer came off federal payrolls," BLS said.

That program was carried out under the banner of Elon Musk`s now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency.

Since the start of the year, the number of federal government jobs has plunged by 271,000.

Wage growth also appeared sluggish this fall. In November, average hourly earnings rose by just 0.1%. Over the last year, average earnings have increased by 3.5%. But this is only a half-percent more than inflation`s most recent reading in September, meaning the wage growth has had little impact on consumers` purchasing power.

To wit, retail and food services sales totaled $732.6 billion for the month of October, a slight dip from reported sales in September, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

And while total October sales were "virtually unchanged" from September`s total of $732.4 billion, they rose 3.5% compared to October 2024, the bureau said.

Excluding auto and food sales, however, October retail sales totaled $633.2 billion, which was a slight increase from the previous month.

The next big federal data release will be Thursday, when BLS is set to publish inflation numbers that were also delayed by the shutdown.

During the 43-day shutdown, which ended Nov. 12, BLS employees were unable to collect some key data, so the report released Tuesday does not contain an unemployment rate or labor force participation rate released for October, and some demographic details for the month will remain unknown.

Federal employees notwithstanding, it wasn`t all bad news. In November, the health care sector added 46,000 jobs and construction payrolls rose by 28,000.

The BLS specifically said that 19,000 of those building jobs were for what it called "nonresidential specialty trade contractors," which could potentially mean AI data centers.

Job losses mounted in the transportation and warehousing sectors, however, led by a loss of more than 18,000 workers classified as couriers or messengers.

The leisure and hospitality industry shrank by 12,000 roles in November, which could be another warning sign for the economy.

ADP`s chief economist Nela Richardson warned in early November that a slowdown in the industry was "the most concerning trend" to her. "That points swiftly back to the consumer and how healthy and resilient the consumer will be," she said.

Other industries showed few signs of growth, including the manufacturing, retail trade, information and financial sectors.

Stock futures traded fairly flat after the data was released. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell had already downplayed the delayed datapoint`s importance last week, calling it potentially "distorted."