Unemployment reaches 15-year high

The nation's unemployment rate climbed to a 15-year high last month as employers slashed more than half a million jobs.

The unemployment rate jumped from 6.5 to 6.7 percent in November as 533,000 jobs were cut. It was the 11th consecutive monthly decline in jobs and the largest one-month loss since December 1974.

The news was also negative in the black community, where unemployment continues to outpace the white rate. The black unemployment rate rose to 11.2 percent last month from 11.1 percent the month before.

"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 Labor Department reported today.

The New York Times said the new numbers would likely make the current recession, already 12 months old, the longest since the Great Depression if it extends just four more months..

Among racial and ethnic groups, the lowest unemployment rate was with Asians, who registered 4.8 percent unemployment, and the highest was with African Americans at 11.2 percent. The white unemployment rate was 6.1 percent and the Hispanic rate was 8.6 percent, according to Labor Department statistics.

Nearly 2 million Americans have lost their jobs this year alone. Even more troubling, millions of people have no expectations of returning to their jobs. "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," according to the Labor Department. Over the past 12 months, the size of this group has increased by 2 million, the Department reported.

More than 2 million people have been unemployed for more than 6 months. Those who are jobless for 27 weeks or more are called "long-term unemployed" and their numbers swelled by 822,000 over the past 12 months.