(FRI 12/2/22)

The U.S. economy added 263,000 jobs in November and maintained a 3.7% unemployment rate, the Labor Department reports, with biggest gains in the usual places; leisure and hospitality, health care and government. The gain is seen as evidence of economic “resilience” to massive tech-sector layoffs, Marketplace reports, citing a Dow Jones survey of economists who had expected the number to be about 200,000. The sunny numbers are tamping down worries that the U.S. economy is entering a recession. 

Meanwhile: Chairman Jerome Powell signaled the Federal Reserve would begin to slow interest rate hikes beginning in December as a sign the Fed has seen some progress in slowing inflation.

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Iowa Caucuses to Lose Poll Position for 2024? – President Biden proposes to make South Carolina the first Democratic primary in 2024, (The Washington Post) followed by New Hampshire and Nevada, then Georgia and Michigan, thus finally knocking the Iowa caucuses out of poll – er, pole – position. Iowa’s caucus has been under fire for years for the state’s lack of racial/ethnic diversity, and a New Hampshire state law requires its primary to be first in the nation. Biden lost the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire and Nevada primaries in 2020 before an endorsement by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) helped him win that South Carolina’s primary. 

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa