Higher Unemployment Due to Housing Crisis?

Higher unemployment numbers completed another vicious cycle for the housing crisis last month. The nation's unemployment rate increased to 9.8 percent in November, the highest level in seven months, the Labor Department announced today. While economists were anticipating 150,000 new jobs, employers made only 39,000 new hires, compared to 172,000 in October.

Around 15.1 million were counted as unemployed in November; a full 17 percent of the labor force remains "underemployed," defined as working part-time when they'd rather have full-time gigs. A key factor in the unemployment picture? The ailing real estate and construction industries, where the rate of job loss has been escalating after the housing crisis. And so the cycle begins again.