Nonfarm payrolls rose 39,000, with private hiring gaining only 50,000, just a third of what economists had expected, a Labor Department report showed on Friday. The unemployment rate jumped to 9.8 percent from 9.6 percent in October.
The weak report was a surprise given the relative strength of some other recent economic signals, including robust retail sales. Economists had expected 140,000 new jobs and a steady unemployment rate.
While the data raised a warning flag, many analysts cautioned against reading too much into it.
"The report comes as an unwelcome bucket of cold water," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. "We're reluctant to take it at face value and suspect that it is an outlier -- on the downside -- but it does underline that the recovery remains a gradual one."
Stock market investors also appeared to be in disagreement with the weak hiring number, and U.S. shares closed marginally higher. Prices for long-dated U.S. government debt fell while the dollar dropped across the board.
A separate report from the Institute for Supply Management showed service sector activity rose in November, with a gauge of hiring reaching its highest level since October 2007, before the economy tumbled into recession.
Payrolls for September and October were revised to show 38,000 more jobs were gained in those months than previously estimated, taking some sting out of the report. Some economists said November's data was likely distorted by the way it was adjusted for seasonal fluctuations and said they expected a snap back in December.
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