Surprisingly weak US unemployment figures cast a shadow across a downbeat holiday sales season with US consumers apparently worried by scarce work and high oil prices.
The November figure of 120,000 new jobs created - the weakest since July - came in well below Wall Street economists' forecasts for 180,000 new jobs, although the unemployment rate eased to 5.4 per cent from 5.5 per cent in October.
In addition, the US Labor Department lowered its estimates for job growth in September and October.
October's gain was marked down to 303,000 from an originally reported 337,000-job increase. The department cut September's total to 119,000 from 139,000.
Some of the weaker performance reflected a trailing off of construction activity in southeastern states after four hurricanes swept through the region in the fall.
Only 11,000 construction jobs were added last month, compared with 65,000 in October. October's construction gain was the strongest since March 2000.
Manufacturing employment posted a third successive monthly drop in November, losing 5,000 jobs after what had appeared to be the beginning of a recovery in the hard-hit sector earlier this year.