The 4.6% rate is the highest in more than four years, according to a delayed government report

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• The U.S. unemployment rate increased to 4.6% in November, its highest in over four years, up from 4.4% in September.

The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, its highest in more than four years, fueling questions about the American economy’s underlying strength.

A long-delayed government report on Tuesday showed that 64,000 jobs were gained in November, while 105,000 jobs were lost in October.

The unemployment rate in November rose to 4.6%, from 4.4% in September, the last month the Labor Department had reported the unemployment rate.

U.S. stock futures were steady following the government’s release.

The department published two months of data instead of one, after pausing its data collections during the 43-day government shutdown. An unemployment rate for October wasn’t available because, during the shutdown, officials weren’t able to conduct the survey needed to calculate that number.

Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected a gain of 45,000 jobs in November, and a 4.5% unemployment rate.

The Journal didn’t survey forecasters about their expectations for the October jobs number, but economists had generally expected a decline, in part because of government layoffs from earlier this year finally kicking in.

Federal-government employment shrank by 6,000 jobs in November, adding to a massive loss of 162,000 federal jobs in October. Federal-government employment is down by 271,000 since January, the Labor Department said.

Tuesday’s report offers new clues about a job market that has cooled significantly in recent months. Rising inflation and tariff uncertainty have prevented companies from expanding their workforces. But the Trump administration’s policies targeting immigrants have also curbed the number of job seekers. That has meant that labor demand hasn’t had to grow as quickly to prevent rising unemployment.

Job numbers for September and August were worse than previously reported. Some 108,000 jobs were added in September, lower than the 119,000 gain previously reported; 26,000 jobs were lost in August, instead of the previously estimated 4,000 decline.

Job losses in June, August and October mean the U.S. economy has shed jobs in three out of the past six months.

Overall, economists describe the current labor market as a low-fire, low-hire environment. Most companies aren’t laying off workers en masse. But they also aren’t willing to hire too many new workers—in part because they believe that a lot of those tasks can be filled by artificial intelligence. Many companies that typically rush to hire temp workers at this time of year are sitting tight.

The report was eagerly anticipated after economists for months had to rely mostly on backward-looking government indicators and alternate data from the private sector.

The new jobs numbers are part of a significant batch of data that were delayed but will be available for the Federal Reserve by its next meeting in late January. A cooling labor market was behind its decision to cut interest rates last Wednesday.

Still, Fed Chair Jerome Powell cautioned last week that officials would look at incoming data with a “somewhat skeptical eye” because data wasn’t collected in October and half of November.

He also said Wednesday that official statistics could be overestimating job creation by up to 60,000 jobs a month, meaning the U.S. could have lost 20,000 jobs a month since April. Powell’s concern there involves estimates the Labor Department has to make when it is trying to measure jobs added or destroyed from new businesses being created or shutting down.

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