The White House has seen evidence that the US November unemployment rate might creep upward from October's level of 10.2 percent, spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Thursday. Gibbs told reporters that he did not know what the November payrolls data, to be released on Friday, would show.
But citing a recent data signal on payroll performance, he said that the White House would not be surprised if it rose from the previous month's 10.2 percent reading. "One payroll estimate came out ... yesterday and it seemed to suggest that it might tick upward," Gibbs told reporters.