Nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply in November, shedding 533,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.5 to 6.7 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. November's drop in payroll employment followed declines of 403,000 in September and 320,000 in October, as revised. Job losses were large and widespread across most major industry sectors in November.
Since the start of the recession in December 2007, as recently announced by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the number of unemployed persons increased by 2.7 million, and the unemployment rate rose by 1.7 percentage points.
Health care continued to add jobs during November, with employment growing by 34,000. Over the past 12 months, health care has added 369,000 jobs.
Read the BLS summary.
