The US unemployment rate rose to 9.8% in November, the highest rate since April, the US Labor Department has said, raising fears about the strength of the country's economic recovery.
Just 39,000 jobs were created last month, below analysts' expectations. In October, 172,000 jobs were created.
Stocks markets fell sharply after the figures were published.
Analysts are concerned that the levels of high unemployment in the US are undermining the economy's recovery.
Market shudder
The announcement - which came before the opening bell on Wall Street - caused the Dow Jones index to drop slightly at the open, before recovering late in the day to close slightly higher.
The euro jumped an entire cent against the dollar, to $1.335, following the data release.
The currency rallied another cent during the course of the day as fears over eurozone government debts receded, while expectations of further quantitative easing by the US Federal Reserve rose.
The jobs number is a first estimate, and could be revised in the coming months.
The US Labor Department said 15.1 million people were now unemployed in the US, equating to a rate of 9.8%. This is an increase from the 9.6% rate recorded in the previous three months.
Jobs were created in the business services, healthcare and mining sectors, but job numbers in the retail and manufacturing sectors fell.
Discouraged workers
Analysts were distinctly underwhelmed by the jobs figures.
The worst news was that the jump in the unemployment rate was not driven by an increase in labour force participation, according to economist Bill McBride on his Calculated Risk blog.
During the slump, many redundant workers gave up seeking new jobs altogether, meaning that they dropped out of the official labour force, and out of the unemployment figures.
As the jobs market improves, economists expect these discouraged workers to start looking for work again, meaning they would be reclassified as unemployed.
Read more US unemployment rate hits seven-month high
No comments:
Post a Comment