U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls Rose 178,000 in November; Unemployment Rate Falls to 4.6%

U.S. employers hired at a steady clip in November while the jobless rate fell to its lowest level in nine years, a broadly upbeat performance that could mask underlying soft spots in the labor market. The U.S. has added more than 15 million jobs since the labor market bottomed out in early 2010. But those gains have been uneven across the nation and across business sectors, pushing swaths of people to the sidelines and by many measures leaving the economy short of prerecession norms.