U.S. Unemployment Rate Falls
The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 10% in November, a modest decrease from the October rate of 10.2%. The number of Americans out of work dropped by 325,000 to 15.4 million in November. The nation’s workforce lost 11,000 jobs last month, the fewest jobs shed since 2007. This is great news; Wall Street economists expected a job loss of 130,000 for the month. Although the manufacturing and construction industries continue to lose jobs, there were increases in the business, professional services, health and education fields.
The underemployment rate also dropped to 17.2% from 17.5% in October. Underemployed people also include part-time workers who are looking for full-time jobs or whose hours were cut, and people who are not working but who have become discouraged and have given up looking for jobs.