Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation News Release — 2008-12-05

Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the employment and unemployment data we released this morning. Nonfarm payroll employment declined by 533,000 in November, with large and widespread losses occurring across the major industry sectors. November's drop in payroll employment followed declines of 403,000 in September and 320,000 in October, as revised. The unemployment rate, at 6.7 percent, continued to trend up in November and has risen by 1.7 percentage points since the recession started in December 2007 (as designated by the National Bureau of Economic Research). Over the past 3 months, job losses have averaged 419,000 per month, sharply higher than the average loss of 82,000 per month from January through August.