Unemployment Rate Leaps to 9.8% Amid Benefits Crisis

US unemployment rate jumped: The national jobless rate leapt to 9.8 percent in November.
Unemployment Rate Leaps to 9.8% Amid Benefits Crisis
Job seekers stand in line at a career fair December 2, 2010 in Denver, Colorado. (John Moore/Getty Images)
12/3/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/unemployment_107251600.jpg" alt="Job seekers stand in line at a career fair December 2, 2010 in Denver, Colorado. (John Moore/Getty Images)" title="Job seekers stand in line at a career fair December 2, 2010 in Denver, Colorado. (John Moore/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1811347"/></a>
Job seekers stand in line at a career fair December 2, 2010 in Denver, Colorado. (John Moore/Getty Images)
The US unemployment rate leapt to 9.8 percent in November, the worst jobless rate since April, as federal benefits start to expire this month.

Approximately 15 million Americans were unemployed in November, and the addition of 39,000 non-farm jobs couldn’t do enough to cushion the growing jobless rate, which was the nation’s worst in seven months.

The number of long-term unemployed Americans stayed steady at 6.3 million as 390,000 more lost their jobs or finished temporary jobs in November.

However, temporary jobs (+40,000) was one of the few sectors that saw a rise in payroll employment last month. Health care jobs also increased, by 19,000, with 8,000 new jobs added at hospitals.

Retail has hit the hardest, with 28,000 jobs lost in November, including job cuts at department stores (-9,000) as well as furniture or furnishing stores (-5,000).

The new data, which came as analysts held their breath over the strength of a potential economic breakthrough out of a recession, puts a damper on recovery hopes.

The unemployment rate, a major economic index considered a pulse for the economy and its upcoming outlook, had stayed steady at 9.6 percent for the past three months. Economists hoped that a diminishing jobless rate would signal the recovery was real, but an official economic upturn now seems to be months away.

The labor statistics were released just as Congress failed to pass an extension on federal unemployment benefits several weeks ago, meaning that millions of Americans will gradually lose their benefits by next February.