Private-sector hiring drops to lowest rate since 2011

Private-sector hiring slowed in November, sinking to one of its weakest readings in more than a decade and signaling growing concern about a cooling labor market.

The private-sector hiring rate sank to 3.5% in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday in an update to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The rate has dropped that low just three other times since the pandemic, and before that, it was not that low since 2011, when the economy was recovering from the Great Recession.