11.1 Million Unemployed In New Year By Klark Byrd kbyrd@suntelegraph.com SIDNEY - New figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor on Friday painted a bleak picture of the American economy, and stock markets suffered a turbulent morning with falling stocks as investors grappled with the new numbers. According to the DOL, there are 11.1 million unemployed people nationwide. That increased the 6.8 percent unemployment rate for November to 7.2 percent in December, the highest it has been since 1993. The DOL reported on Friday that 524,000 non-farm payroll jobs were slashed in December, but 632,000 people became unemployed for the month. The latest numbers available from Nebraska Workforce Development/Department of Labor paint a slightly different picture of the labor market in the state. The unemployment rate remained steady in November at 3.7 percent, which was October’s revised rate. Closer to home, Cheyenne County’s rate for November rose to 2.8 percent from 2.5 percent in October. The number of unemployed recorded by NWD rose by 17 people in the county. The USDOL said in a press release that “since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has grown by 3.6 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 2.3 percentage points.” For the full year, the economy caused job losses in all 12 months of 2008. In Cheyenne County, the 2.8 percent November rate is three-tenths of a percentage point higher than the November 2007 rate. Though the 3.7 percent Nebraska unemployment rate may seem low compared to the national economy, the state isn’t without its troubles for the unemployed. The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the number of claims for unemployment benefits being filed in the state recently has created some problems. Twice in the past month, Nebraska’s online and phone-based filing systems have been unavailable for several hours while the state computers finish processing the previous day’s claims. The outages occurred on the Mondays after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Jill Schreck with the Nebraska Department of Labor says after Christmas, the system was unavailable for a couple hours in the morning, and this week, the system was unavailable until 1 p.m. Monday. The AP reported that the total number of claims filed each week has grown from 19,530 in mid-December to 23,292 last week. And those claim numbers are significantly higher than a year ago. According to the NWD, unemployment weekly benefits were changed to $308 with a maximum payout of $8,008. A claimant must have earned $2,781 in the base period to qualify for a new unemployment insurance claim. Worksite closures continued throughout the state including in Scottsbluff where NWD is reporting that Corral West Ranchwear closed, laying off nine employees. According to NWD, contrary to the national statistics, the number of jobs in Nebraska increased by 1,565 since November 2007.