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The national unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent for November. The labor statics released today show a 2 tenths of a percentage point climb from October. The news is worse in Florida where the rate is nearly 12 percent. As Whitney Ray tells us, while Congress bickers over whether or not to extend unemployment pay, the jobs forecast continues to worsen.

When we first caught up with Nsoyn Johnson in July he had just lost his job as a car mechanic. He was working on neighbors’ cars to make ends meet.

Today he still helps friends with car trouble, but his main gig is as a shipping manager for a charity. It’s not exactly the job he wanted, but he’s happy to have it.

“I’m just thankful that I have something, because I know that you can go from nothing to something in just the way you think,” said Nsoyn.

15 million Americans are out of work. The National Unemployment rate has risen to 9.8 percent.

And if the numbers seem bad on the national level, it’s even worse in Florida. The state unemployment rate is 11.9 percent, which means more than a million people are looking for jobs.

The news comes as unemployment benefits for 106-thousand Floridians are expiring. The Agency for Workforce Innovation continues to point job seekers to the Employflorida.com, where 230-thousand job openings are posted.

“Go out there and look, the listings change everyday and we encourage everyone who is looking for a job to continuously focus on this,” said AWI Spokesman Robby Cunningham.

Studies are finding the longer someone is unemployed the harder it becomes for them to find a job. Nsoyn is lucky he was only out of work for four months. He says people still looking should keep their head up.

“While you’re waiting you’ve got to do something whether it’s raking grass, mowing yards you go to do something, there’s something out there for everyone,” said Nsoyn.

The good news is jobs are being created but as more work becomes available, people who previously stopped looking have reentered the job hunt, which drives the unemployment rate up.