Unemployment rate ticks up in November
San José, CA – On Friday, December 6, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the survey of households showed that the unemployment rate for November 2024 increased to 4.2%, from 4.1% in October. This continued the trend of higher unemployment since bottoming out in April of 2023 at 3.4%.
Although the increase in the unemployment rate was small – just 0.1% – all of the increase in unemployment was concentrated among oppressed nationalities and women. While the unemployment rate for men and for white Americans was unchanged from October to November, the unemployment rate for African American rose 0.7%, from 5.7% to 6.4%. The unemployment rate for women rose by 0.3% and for Latinos, 0.2%.
The number of workers who have been out of work six months or more rose to the highest level since February of 2022, when the economy was still recovering from the 2020 recession. The average length of time of unemployment also increased, showing that those without work are having a harder time finding work. At the same time, layoffs have remained at a low level, as seen in the number of new claims for unemployment insurance or U.I. staying low.
At the same time, the number of new jobs, based on a survey of businesses, bounced back from a dismal number in October. The October jobs report was depressed by the Boeing workers’ strike, which kept more than 30,000 out of work, and Hurricane Helene, which shut hotels and travel during the survey period. But these jobs came back in November, boosting the total increase to 227,000 up from only 36,000 in October. But even averaged together, they only averaged 132,000 a month for the last two months, much less than in 2023, when the monthly increase was almost 300,000 net new jobs.