As usual, it's the first Friday of the month, and that means monthly jobs numbers.

While most economists and pundits were worried about the effects of Hurricane Sandy, when this month's official Federal jobs report was released, it surprised quite a few people.

Employment climbed in November to 146,000, significantly more than what had been expected. Additionally, the unemployment number continued to fall to 7.7%, it's best showing in four years.

As Brad Plumer of Wonkblog pointed out, while the November jobs numbers are better, there were a few caveats. Jobs numbers from both September and October were revised downward slightly, and the participation rate also slowed slightly again.

Still, as Steve Benen pointed out, given the expectations for horrible jobs numbers due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy, November's jobs numbers come as a pleasant surprise. As usual, Steve Benen also made up a private sector chart, showing positive monthly job losses/gains in just the private sector since the start of the Bush Recession. 

Overall, November represented the 33rd month in a row of consistant job growth under President Obama.