The Employment Situation: November 2002 — 2002-12-06

Nonfarm payroll employment was little changed in November, while the unemployment rate rose to 6.0 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Job losses continued in manufacturing, but the services industry added workers. The number of unemployed persons edged up to 8.5 million in November. The unemployment rate rose to 6.0 percent, a level most recently reached in April. From May through October, the jobless rate remained within a range of 5.6 to 5.9 percent. In November, the unemployment rate for adult men rose by half a percentage point to 5.7 percent; rates for blacks (11.0 percent) and teenagers (16.8 percent) also were up over the month. The jobless rates for adult women (5.0 percent), whites (5.2 percent), and Hispanics (7.8 percent) showed little or no change.