U.S. Unemployment Rises to Highest Level Since 2021

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Sabrina Siddiqui (0:18)

The US unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, its highest level in more than four years. Plus, how a push for more IPOs has helped cause a wave of stock scams. And the European Union is reversing course on banning new gas-powered cars.

Kim Mackrael (0:35)

Globally, we're seeing less uptake from consumers on EVs than some policy makers had expected.

Sabrina Siddiqui (0:42)

It's Tuesday, December 16th. I'm Sabrina Siddiqui for the Wall Street Journal, sitting in for Alex Osela. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

In a breaking news update, we're exclusively reporting that Warner Brothers Discovery will tell shareholders to reject Paramount's latest bid for the company. That's according to people familiar with the matter. Warner plans to recommend that shareholders support the existing deal with Netflix instead, and that recommendation could come as soon as tomorrow. For more on this story, go to wsj.com. The US unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, its highest level in more than four years. And the Labor Department says employers added 64,000 jobs last month after they cut 105,000 jobs in October. Economists have been waiting for these latest numbers, which are some of the most important to be disrupted by the government shutdown. Today's report includes November jobs data and Apache readout from October. Ashby Jones, The Wall Street Journal's Deputy Economics Editor, tells WSJ correspondent Shelby Holliday during a live Q&A this morning that this report still doesn't add a ton of clarity to what's going on now in the labor market.

Ashby Jones (2:06)

The 64,000 number is a little bit better than expected. The 4.6 is maybe a little bit worse than expected. So take it together, it's not an awful report, but it's certainly not a great report either. It's somewhere right in this mushy middle, which frankly, Shelby, is like where we've been with jobs for the past six months.

Sabrina Siddiqui (2:25)

But there are some reassurances. For example, hiring in the private sector showed signs of stabilizing.

Ashby Jones (2:31)

This is a pretty solid number. It's not great. It's not awful. But it kind of hits the mark and I think tells us that the job situation hasn't fallen off a cliff. And that was the big fear from a lot of people.

Sabrina Siddiqui (2:45)

The report isn't seen as signaling big changes to the Federal Reserve's thinking on whether to continue cutting interest rates. Expectations for a January rate cut didn't change much after the report, staying at about 25% according to CME Group data. To hear more from Ashby Jones and Lead Markets Reporter Gunjan Banerjee on the jobs report, go to wsj.com/video. Stock markets were mixed after the jobs report, which pointed to one of the weakest American labor markets in years. The Dow fell 0.6% and the S&P lost 0.2%. The NASDAQ rose 0.2%.

US regulators have sought to reverse the decline in stock exchange listings by loosening rules for smaller firms. But that strategy carries an inherent tradeoff. Lighter oversight can make markets more vulnerable to stock scams. That tension is now playing out at the Securities and Exchange Commission under Chairman Paul Atkins. Jonathan Weil, a Wall Street Journal reporter and heard-on-the-street columnist covering finance joins us now with more. Jonathan, you report that this 2012 law, known as the Jobs Act, tried to make it easier for smaller companies to go public as a way to encourage more IPOs. What does the SEC want to do now to make that process even easier?

Jonathan Weil (4:02)

It wants companies to have the designation of emerging growth companies for longer than they can have right now. Under the current rules, a company could be designated as an emerging growth company for as long as five years, but if they hit certain size thresholds, like if they go past $1.235 billion of revenue, then they automatically stop being emerging growth companies. Paul Atkins, the SEC chairman, has suggested that maybe they should be guaranteed a certain minimum number of years, and that would essentially expand their eligibility to be exempt from any number of different accounting, auditing or disclosure requirements.

Sabrina Siddiqui (4:46)

How would you define emerging growth companies? What exactly are they?

Jonathan Weil (4:50)

Emerging growth companies are companies that the SEC wants to give special treatment to. The proponents of these exemptions want to create the impression that these are small entrepreneurial companies worthy of support from the public. And some of them may fit that bill. At the same time, just because they're called emerging growth companies, doesn't necessarily mean that they hold great promise.