US President George W. Bush is "very concerned" about US unemployment and will meet with his Treasury and Labor secretaries today to discuss the situation, the White House said.
"The president is very concerned," Mr Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters, adding Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao were expected in the Oval Office mid-morning.
The US economy lost 415,000 jobs in October as the unemployment rate jumped to 5.4 per cent from 4.9 per cent in September, the government said today.
The Labor Department report showed the highest unemployment rate since December 1996, and the largest one-month jump in the unemployment rate since May 1980.
It was the fourth and largest decline this year, in a labor market that had only one monthly decline since May 1991.
AFP