Nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply (-533,000) in November, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.5% to 6.7%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported recently. 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 the major industry sectors in November.

Both the number of unemployed persons (10.3 million) and the unemployment rate (6.7%) continued to increase 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.

The unemployment rates for adult men (6.5%) and adult women (5.5%) continued to trend up in November. The unemployment rates for teenagers (20.4%), whites (6.1%), blacks (11.2%), and Hispanics (8.6%) showed little change over the month. The jobless rate for Asians was 4.8% in November, not seasonally adjusted.

Among the unemployed, the number of persons who lost their job and did not expect to be recalled to work increased by 298,000 to 4.7 million in November. Over the past 12 months, the size of this group has increased by 2.0 million.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 2.2 million in November, but was up by 822,000 over the past 12 months.