While many observers were quite impressed with the 321,000-person surge in payrolls during November, an almost-three-year high, some other employment numbers weren't so pretty, writes CNBC's Jeff Cox.

The payroll figure came from a survey of businesses and was seasonally-adjusted. But the survey of households showed a job gain of just 4,000. Unemployment grew by 115,000, while the labor force expanded by 119,000.

To be sure, Bank of America senior economist Michelle Meyer isn't too concerned about the 4,000 figure. "On the surface [that] is a disappointment," she writes in a commentary obtained by CNBC.

"However, this follows an outsized gain of 683,000 in October and 232,000 in September." In addition, "the survey of household jobs tends to be quite noisy, suggesting caution when reacting to a given month of data," Meyer says.

Still, the labor force participation rate was 62.8 percent, unchanged from October and barely above September's 36-year low of 62.7 percent.

Meanwhile 77,000 of the new jobs were part-time, while full-time jobs plunged 150,000.

"Taken in total, a peek beneath the hood of these numbers suggests a job market that still has a ways to go," Cox writes.

Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors, is much more upbeat. "The economy may not yet be a big mean jobs machine but it is just about there," he writes.

"November job gains were way above expectations, and there were solid upward revisions to the previous two months numbers. . . . Nearly 70 percent of the industries posted gains. You have to search far and wide to find any major drop in employment."

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