Unemployment Rate Falls; Lowest Since March 2009

By: Nsenga Burton | Posted: December 2, 2011 at 12:13 PM

Unemployment rate is lower than it has been since March 2009. (Thinkstock)

USA Today is reporting that the U.S. unemployment rate fell last month to its lowest level in more than 2 1/2 years as employers stepped up hiring in response to the slowly improving economy. The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate dropped sharply to 8.6 percent last month from 9 percent in October. The rate hasn't been that low since March 2009, during the depths of the recession.

Employers added 120,000 jobs last month. And figures for the previous two months were revised up to show 72,000 more jobs added -- the fourth straight month that the government revised prior months higher.

Despite the gains, some of the numbers are due to the fact that many people have given up on finding jobs. While retailers, restaurants and bars have added jobs, other sectors, like government, have continued to shed jobs, to the tune of 20,000 last month.

We're going to focus on the positive, which is that many more Americans now have jobs -- certainly a good thing. President Obama's plan is working, slowly but surely, which will definitely speak well to voters. We still want to know how these latest figures impact the black community, which has been hit hardest by unemployment.

Read more at USA Today.

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