Fed Beige Book Shows ‘Widespread’ Job Gains

The Federal Reserve reported broad-based employment gains across U.S. industries and regions, two days before the Labor Department issues its highly anticipated monthly jobs data.

“Employment gains were widespread,” the Fed said today in its Beige Book business survey, which is based on reports gathered on or before Nov. 24. “A number of districts also noted that contacts remained optimistic about the outlook for future economic activity.”

The report offers Fed policy makers, who meet Dec. 16-17, anecdotal evidence about improvements in the job market as they consider when to raise interest rates for the first time since 2006. Other data today showed private employers added 208,000 jobs in November, while services from retailing to construction expanded at the second-fastest pace in more than nine years.

Bloomberg

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