The labor force shed 11,000 non-farm jobs during the month, about 100,000 less than October, the department said.
While construction, manufacturing and information sectors continued to shed jobs, temporary help and healthcare added jobs in the month, the report said.
The drop of 11,000 jobs is the lowest total since December 2007, the month the recession officially began, which saw an addition of 120,000 jobs.
Since December 2007, when the unemployment rate was 4.9 percent, more than 7.5 million workers have lost their jobs. In the three months prior to November, job losses averaged 135,000 per month.
Despite the improved unemployment rate, the number of people out of work for 27 weeks or more rose by 293,000 to 5.9 million.
The number of workers stuck in part-time positions for economic reasons was "little changed" at 9.2 million, the department said. But the number of "discouraged workers" who have given up looking for a job rose to 861,000 from 608,000 a month ago.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International.
unemployment rate
Not all are glad that unemployment rate has dropped, there are still more who are unemployed nowadays and they are still many. Numbers on unemployment for November have been released, and it turns out that unemployment actually went down last month, falling from 10.2 percent in October, but down to 10 percent in November. This might be due to seasonal employment, but we should take what we can get. It’s widely known that optimism will help the economy more than anything, because confident consumers spend more money. People are also much more likely to get payday cash advances if they know their jobs are secure.
Post new comment