The Unemployment Rate for November slipped to 10%, from 10.2% in October, which was a twenty six and a half year high. This small decline means that the economy could begin to generate jobs soon. Many economists believe this could begin in the first quarter of the next year. This decline occurred because the number of unemployed persons declined by 325,000 to 15.4 million. At the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons was 7.5 million and the unemployment rate was 4.9%, which means these figures have more than doubled. Nonfarm Payrolls remained essentially unchanged, falling by just 11,000 in November, after an upwardly revised fall of 111,000 in October. The November payrolls figure reflects the slowest rate of monthly contraction since Dec 2007, the last time monthly payrolls were positive. Job losses occurred in construction, manufacturing and information industries were offset by job gains in temporary help services and health care. The Average Workweek rose by 0.2 hours to 33.2 hours and Average Hourly Earnings increased by 0.1% decreasing from the figure of 0.3% in October.
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