The November numbers indicate that the economy lost a net 11,000 jobs, well below the 130,000 jobs that were forecasted. October net losses were revised down to -111,000 (from 190,000). Since the recession began in December of 2007, the economy has lost 7.2 million jobs.

The unemployment rate also unexpectedly edged down in November to 10%, representing a total of 15.4 million people. However, the median time unemployed continues to rise (now 20.1 weeks). Black unemployment was 15.6%, white unemployment was 9.3% and Latino unemployment was 12.7%. Professional and business services (+86,000; +52,000 in temporary employment services) and health and education (+40,000) both added jobs in November. Manufacturing led job losses in November, losing 41,000 jobs, followed by construction (-27,000) and then retail trade (-14,500). While overall government employment increased, losses at the state and local levels, excluding education, continued (-15,800) indicating the need for direct job creation like that proposed in the National Urban League's Plan for Putting American's Back to Work (released last Tuesday, November 24, 2009 and available at http://www.nul.org/content/national-urban-league-plan-putting-americans-...).

While the November report suggests that the labor market might be stabilizing -- industry job losses are down for the 3rd month in a row, employers are hiring temporary workers and layoffs are stabilizing -- the unemployment rate might continue to rise in immediate months ahead as more workers enter the labor force. Marc Zandi suggests that unemployment might rise to near 11% by mid-2010 before peaking.