Given Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s recent pivot toward a more hawkish stance on inflation, the November jobs report is even more consequential than it otherwise would have been. Investors will learn Friday morning the degree to which the U.S. labor shortage persisted last month, with much of the outlook for economic and monetary policy hinging on whether millions of workers have started to return to the workforce. 

The Labor Department releases its latest employment situation report at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday. Economists…