Posted at 12:43 p.m., Friday, December 7, 2001

U.S. jobless rate hits 5.7%

By Martin Crutsinger
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The nation's unemployment rate took another big leap upward in November to 5.7 percent, the highest level in six years, as 331,000 more Americans lost their jobs, the government reported today.

It marked the second consecutive month of massive job losses as the weak economy continued to stagger from the blow delivered by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The government said that since March, when the nation's first recession in a decade began, 1.2 million Americans have lost their jobs.

President Bush called the sharp increase in unemployment troubling and pressed Congress anew to pass the economic stimulus plan he put forward in October. Democrats have balked, demanding that it be changed to provide more help to low-income Americans and the unemployed. But the administration insists that its mix of tax cuts for individuals and businesses will stimulate more growth.

"The most important thing we can do for unemployed workers and those concerned about their jobs is to get the economy growing," Bush said.

Economists fear thousands more will be thrown out of work even if the country is able to mount a sustainable recovery in the first half of next year. Many forecasters believe the jobless rate will peak at around 6.5 percent next summer. That would still be better than the 7.8 percent unemployment level hit during the last recession in 1990-91.

Analysts said today's jobless report represented a dash of cold water over hopes that had been building in financial markets that the recovery had already bottomed out.

"We had a little bit of false euphoria over the past 10 days. This report brings us back to reality," said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at ABN Amro of Chicago.