November Employment and Unemployment: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released a report today on employment and unemployment for November (pdf summary). Highlights of the report:

 

 

 

Unemployment Rate

• The unemployment rate jumped up to 9.8% in November, from 9.6% in October.  November marks a record 19^th consecutive month (since data officially began in 1948) that the unemployment rate has been over 9.0%.
• The number of long-term unemployed (those unemployed for 27 weeks or longer) continued to edge up slightly in November to a level of 6.3 million persons, representing 41.9% of the unemployed. 
• The size of the labor force rose by 103,000 in November, but remains 949,000 below its peak level in May, 2009.  There are 4.7 million fewer workers in the labor force than there would have been if labor force growth had continued at the same pace it did between 2004 and 2007.
• There were 15.1 million unemployed persons in November, up from 14.8 million in October.

Payroll Employment

Total non-farm payroll employment rose by 39,000 in November, following a gain of 172,000 in October (revised from a gain of 151,000) and a loss of 24,000 in September (revised from a loss of 41,000).  

• Private sector employment rose by 50,000 while government employment fell by 11,000. 
• The largest employment gains came from: temporary help services (+40,000), health care (+8,000), and support activities for mining (+6,000).  The largest job loss came from: retail trade (-28,000) and manufacturing (-13,000).  
• The average workweek held steady at 34.3 hours for all private nonfarm employees. 
• Employment has fallen by 7.4 million since the start of the recession in December, 2007.