U.S. Unemployment Rate Rises – Jobless Rate Soars

The U.S. Department of Labor has released the latest number on unemployment rate. Sadly, from a 9.6 percent rate in October, the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent this November, NY Times reported.

More than 15 million people remained out of work last month, and 6.3 million of them have been unemployed for six months or longer.

Private companies, which have been hiring since the beginning of the year, added 50,000 jobs in November. Most of those increases came in the form of temporary help, where 40,000 jobs were added, and in health care, with an additional 19,000 jobs.

Retail jobs declined by 28,000 in November, while manufacturing, which had showed some strength earlier in the year, lost 13,000 jobs. Government jobs dropped by 11,000 in the month.

Included in the latest report were revisions from previous months. The agency now says that the economy added 172,000 jobs in October, instead of the 151,000 jobs previously reported. September was revised to a loss of 24,000 jobs from a loss of 41,000.