Washington - The US unemployment rate climbed to 6.7 per cent in November amid a loss of 533,000 jobs, the worst monthly drop since 1974 and dramatically worse than economists expected, the US government said Friday.

The US Labour Department also said a revised 403,000 jobs were lost in October and 320,000 in September. The new figures put the world's largest economy on track for nearly 2 million lost jobs in 2008.

The unemployment rate stood at 6.5 per cent in October. (dpa)