WASHINGTON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday November unemployment figures underscored the importance of extending tax cuts for middle-class Americans and unemployment insurance of people who are out of work.
U.S. employment barely grew in November and the jobless rate unexpectedly jumped to a seven-month high.
"An unemployment rate of 9.8 percent is unacceptably high and we need to achieve robust employment growth in order to recover from the deep job losses that began over two years ago," White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee said in a statement.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Patricia Zengerle)