Reporting from Washington and Los Angeles -- After two long years of economic destruction that saw about 8 million American jobs disappear, the national payroll essentially stopped shrinking last month in an unexpected turn that raised hopes a labor market recovery might finally be at hand.
Although most analysts had expected November's job losses to top 100,000, the Labor Department said Friday that employers shed just 11,000 jobs in November -- the smallest number lost since the recession began in December 2007.
And the nation's unemployment rate fell to 10% last month, down from 10.2% in October.
Lending credence to the possibility of a turnaround, the Labor Department issued revised job-loss numbers for the previous two months. They showed the actual number of jobs lost was about 40% smaller than previous estimates -- 139,000 for September and 111,000 for October.
The surprisingly good news gave a boost to President Obama as he prepared to announce new efforts to stimulate job growth. And many economists saw the jobs reports as evidence that the deep labor market downturn is at, or very close to, bottom.
At the same time, both Obama and analysts cautioned against reading too much into one month's data.
The report "is a blow to the real gloom-and-doomers," said Larry Kantor, head of research at Barclays Capital. But, he added, "I wouldn't go too overboard."
For one thing, the drop in the unemployment rate in part reflects shrinkage in the nation's total labor force. One reason for the shrinkage is believed to be that discouraged people were giving up and not looking for jobs.
That's likely to change now that the news has turned better. The double-digit unemployment rate -- last seen in the early 1980s -- is almost certain to climb again as more people enter the labor force.
For statistical purposes, the labor force is defined as workers and people looking for work, so if some stop seeking employment, the rate can go down even if the number of jobless people has stayed the same or even grown.
Moreover, just because layoffs have slowed sharply doesn't mean employers are ready to make substantial hires. The American economy needs to generate at least 100,000 net new jobs a month to keep the unemployment rate level as the population grows and new workers join the labor force. Forecasters don't see that happening until spring at the earliest.
Still, job losses have been declining since peaking at 741,000 in January.
And for individual workers and their families, a small improvement overall could be transforming.
After getting laid off in mid-September from his troubleshooting job at a motor-control manufacturer, electronics technician Rick Rottman of Williamsport, Md., was a bit demoralized.
"I always pay attention to the job numbers, but when you're actually out of a job, it's so personal," the 45-year-old said.
After applying for about a dozen jobs through the Internet, he landed a full-time position at the tech desk of a credit card service company. Though it pays slightly less, Rottman said he couldn't be more satisfied.
"I'm pretty excited about it. I think I lucked out," he said. "Not only was I able to find a job, in the long run, I think it's going to be a lot better than the job I had."
Obama, eager to show that his economic policies are taking hold, called it the best jobs report since 2007.
"I've got to admit, my chief economist, Christy Romer, she got about four hugs when she handed us the report," Obama said in Allentown, Pa., where he spent Friday as part of a series of planned visits to towns to highlight his efforts on job creation.
"But I do want to keep this in perspective," Obama added. "We've still got a long way to go. . . . Good trends don't pay the rent. We've got to actually grow jobs and get America back to work as quickly as we can."
That won't be easy. There were 15.4 million unemployed workers in November, nearly 6 million of them jobless for six months or longer. An additional 9.2 million are working part time only because their hours were cut or they couldn't find full-time work.
In a speech Tuesday, Obama will lay out specific ideas he wants to see included in a new congressional effort to create jobs. Obama's economic team plans to work through the weekend to complete his proposal.
The White House envisions something far smaller than the $787-billion stimulus passed in February, though administration officials would not specify the cost.
"This will be on a smaller scale, obviously, than what we did on the Recovery Act. And it is going to be targeted," said Romer, who chairs the Council of Economic Advisors.
The White House is collaborating with congressional Democrats, who have been crafting a jobs package meant to fuel the fragile economic recovery.
House aides said Friday that the envisioned package would cost about $70 billion and would be financed with money left over from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the fund used to bail out financial institutions.
