Unemployment soars in the US to its highest level in more than four years

BarcelonaThe US labor market is weakening. The unemployment rate climbed to 4.6% in November, its highest level in more than four years, although employment increased by 64,000 jobs, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The unemployment rate rose two-tenths of a percentage point from 4.4% in September, a month in which the US economy added 119,000 jobs. Although the number of jobs created in November was lower, it exceeded analysts' estimates of 50,000 jobs. While this report does not include complete data for October, when many of the usual economic indicators were not collected due to the shutdown of central government operations caused by the federal government shutdown, it does reflect a sharp drop of about 105,000 jobs in the tenth month of the year.

In total, in November, the number of unemployed stood at around 7.8 million, an increase compared to the 7.1 million unemployed registered in the same month of 2014, when unemployment stood at 4.2%.