U.S. jobless rate falls to 10%

The national unemployment rate edged down in November, and by more than economists had thought, but the number of people losing jobs last month still outran the number of those finding work.

The rate fell to 10 percent in November from 10.2 percent in October, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported yesterday. Unemployment stood at 6.8 percent a year ago, as the recession started biting.

About 375,000 more Americans joined the unemployment lines, while 227,000 found jobs, the bureau reported a day after President Barack Obama hosted a jobs summit to focus on how to get the unemployed back to work.

"That's the smallest net decline since 2007," said Kent Engelke, chief economic strategist and managing director at Capitol Securities Management, a Richmond-based securities firm.

"I think we're going to start seeing hiring picking up in January," he said.

The key, he said, are two numbers often lost in the flood of monthly data on job markets.

The number of people working at temporary-help companies rose by 52,000 in November, to 1.8 million.

And the average work week in the nation's factories edged up another six minutes, to 40 hours, 24 minutes. That means overtime is on the rise and could be headed to the point where employers believe it makes more sense to hire staff than keep paying time-and-a-half.

But the data also show plenty of people still are hurting.

The number of people who are so discouraged that they've stopped looking for work rose by another 53,000 to 861,000, the bureau reported. The number who have been out of work for six months or more rose by 293,000, to 5.9 million.

"Today's employment report was the most hopeful sign yet that the stabilization of financial markets and the recovery in economic growth may be leading to improvements in the labor market," said Christina Romer, chairwoman of the president's Council of Economic Advisors.

But she said the large number of Americans still out of work underscores the need for the kind of job-creating programs for which Obama called at Thursday's forum.

Though the unemployment rate dropped for the first time since July, last month's layoffs brought the total of jobs lost since the recession began to 7.2 million.

The net number of job losses last month, 11,000, was far below October's 597,000 and was lower than almost all economists had predicted. A Bloomberg News Service survey of 82 economists showed the lowest forecast was for a net job loss of 30,000, while the average was a 125,000 job loss.

"Bottom line, the data is a clear positive, but doesn't square with other info," said Peter Boockvar, a market strategist with the New York investment bank Miller Tabak & Co.

"But let's enjoy it for today."

Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or dress @timesdispatch.com.