U.S. Jobless rate jumps to 9.8% as hiring slows in November

After three months of holding steady, the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent in November with payroll employment showing little growth (just 39,000 jobs in November), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported December 3. The monthly report dashed the expectations of economists, many of whom had predicted much more robust job growth. According to estimates provided by the Social Security Administration, the U.S. will have to add at least 200,000 jobs a month to push unemployment below 8 percent by 2012. Currently, more than 15 million people remain unemployed.

This is bad news for the U.S. economy and for the Administration. Unemployment has become the most politically critical measure of the U.S. economic recovery. Congressional failures to extend benefits for long-term unemployed could also mean the loss of benefits for more than 1.5 million unemployed by Christmas.

Source: The Washington Post

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