The Employment Situation: November 2003 — 2003-12-05

Employment continued to trend up in November and the unemployment rate, at 5.9 percent, was essentially unchanged from October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Nonfarm payroll employment rose slightly over the month (57,000). Both the unemployment rate, 5.9 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, 8.7 million, were essentially unchanged in November. The jobless rate is down slightly from midyear. Unemployment rates for most of the major worker groups--adult men (5.7 percent), adult women (5.1 percent), teenagers (15.5 percent), whites (5.2 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (7.4 percent)-- were little changed. The rate for blacks (10.2 percent) was down over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 5.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.) In November, 2.0 million unemployed persons had been looking for work for 27 weeks or longer, about the same level as in October. They represented 23.7 percent of the total unemployed.