November National Job Losses Top 500,000

Georgians and others in the rest of the country felt the pain last month, as the U.S. Government reported this past week that the nation’s economy lost 533,000 non-farm jobs in November. The decline is the largest one-month job loss, in terms of raw numbers, since December of 1974.

The loss increased the nation's unemployment rate to 6.7%, up from a revised unemployment rate of 6.5% the month prior. The unemployment rate is the highest its been in some 15 years.

Since the recession began in December last year, more than 1.9 million jobs have been lost, according to the Labor Department.

On the local front, (November numbers not yet available), the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) reported that the unemployment rate in metro Atlanta rose to a preliminary unadjusted rate of 6.8 percent in October, up 2.4 percentage points over the year from October of 2007. The jobless rate in metro Atlanta rose four-tenths of one percentage point from a revised 6.4 percent in September.

Meanwhile, Georgia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 7.0 percent in October, the highest rate in more than 16 years. The jobless rate was up 2.5 percentage points from 4.5 percent at this same time last year. The October unemployment rate was up six-tenths of one percentage point from a revised 6.4 percent in September. At present, 343,093 unemployed Georgians are looking for work.