WASHINGTON/OTTAWA/ (AFP) - The US economy lost a stunning 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate jumped to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. The monthly report on nonfarm payrolls, seen as one of the best indicators of economic momentum, highlighted the severe retrenchment by companies in the face of a struggling economy and tight credit. The number of job losses was much higher than the 325,000 expected by private forecasters. The report also included a sharp upward revision in the number of job losses in the prior two months: October saw a loss of 403,000 jobs (up from an earlier estimate of 240,00) and September job losses were revised up to 320,000 from 284,000. "There is no sugar-coating this data," analysts at Briefing.com. "It is bad news that will weigh heavily on consumer sentiment and will serve to increase concerns about the depth and length of the current slowdown." Sophia Koropeckyj at Economy.com said that losses "were broad-based across both service-producing and goods-producing industries" and the worst single-month decline since 1974. "The economy is in recession, and the severity will far surpass the depths of the last two recessions." The jobless rate, based on a separate survey of households, was the highest since Oct 1993 but slightly better than the consensus estimate of economists of 6.8pc. The Labor Department noted that since the official onset of recession in Dec 2007, some 2.7m jobs have been lost, and the unemployment rate rose by 1.7 percentage points. In Nov, the report showed a loss of 85,000 jobs in manufacturing, bringing the total in the sector to 604,000 over the past 12 months, despite a return of 27,000 aerospace workers from strike. Employment in the retail sector fell by 91,000, and the leisure and hospitality sector shed 76,000 jobs. The troubled financial sector shed 32,000 jobs in month, bringing the 12-month total losses to 142,000. The National Bureau of Economic Research, the panel recognized as the official arbiter of business cycles, said this week the US entered recession in Dec 2007. Although a recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of declining activity, the panel has its own criteria for determining a downturn, including data on employment, income and industrial output. Meanwhile, Canada lost a worse-than-expected 70,600 jobs in November as the global economic slowdown dealt a body blow to the manufacturing sector, Statistics Canada said Friday. The jobless rate rose to 6.3 percent from 6.2 percent in October. Analysts had forecast a loss of about 20,000 jobs on the heels of positive numbers in previous months. For the first 11 months of 2008, employment was up by 0.8 percent and some 133,000 jobs were created. But November's figures are a clear sign Canada is feeling the effects of the global credit crisis. Ontario, home to much of Canada's auto industry, took the hardest hit, losing 66,000 jobs. Meanwhile, President-elect Barack Obama on Friday called for an "urgent" effort to put people back to work and to stimulate the US economy after the release of the worst job loss figures in 34 years. "There are not quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better," Obama warned in a statement. "But now is the time to respond with urgent resolve to put people back to work and get our economy moving again," Obama said. "The 533,000 jobs lost last month, the worst job loss in 34 years, is more than a dramatic reflection of the growing economic crisis we face. "Each of those lost jobs represents a personal crisis for a family somewhere in America." Obama vowed to push forward his economic recovery plan which he says will create at least 2.5 million more jobs over two years while shoring up the flow of credit. The president-elect, who takes office on January 20, also said the "painful crisis" offered an opportunity to transform the US economy to unleash infrastructure programs to modernize schools, rebuild roads and push energy reform. Meanwhile, the White House said Friday it was "very concerned" about unemployment and vowed to pursue "aggressive" remedies after new data showed the US economy lost a stunning 533,000 jobs in November. "We're very concerned that the housing and credit problems are leading to significant job losses in the economy," spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement. "We need to focus on the causes of the economic downturn in order to reverse this trend in job creation. We intend to continue our aggressive efforts to restore health to our credit and housing markets," she said.