Why didn’t the strong jobs report send mortgage rates skyrocketing? 

With all the crazy things happening this week, the blowout jobs report on Friday didn’t send mortgage rates up at all. But one thing is for sure: the labor market has been better in 2026 than it was in 2025. I once labelled the labor market the honey badger labor market and no matter what has been thrown at the U.S. economy after 2011 — outside the brief recession created by COVID-19 — the labor data has held up well. Let’s dig into why very strong jobs report didn’t push yields or mortgage rates higher, as we would normally expect with the Fed being so hawkish in their statement. From BLS: Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 in October, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and business services, in health care, and in transportation and warehousing.The labor data has improved enough that we have gone from a 4.5% unemployment rate last year to 4.1% today. Part of this is that labor-force growth has slowed and the break-even number has decreased, meaning fewer jobs are needed to keep the unemployment rate low. I have my break-even at 78,000 jobs created per month...