December 10, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Unemployment rose in November

Employment dropped sharply for the second month in a row in November, and the unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent.

Unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, November 1998-November 2001
[Chart data—TXT]

The number of unemployed persons increased by 419,000 to 8.2 million in November and the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage point. The jobless rate in November was at its highest level since August 1995.

Since October 2000, when both measures were at their most recent lows, unemployment has risen by 2.6 million and the unemployment rate has increased by 1.8 percentage points, of which 1.4 percentage points have come since the beginning of the recession in March.

The unemployment data are a product of the Current Population Survey. Find out more in "The Employment Situation: November 2001," News release USDL 01-453.

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

Find out more about the story of TED