State officials say the unemployment rate sharply spiked in Illinois in November as more people started looking for work.

The Illinois Department of Employment Security said Thursday that the jobless rate jumped 0.3 percent to 5.7 percent in November. It was the first increase since July 2014. The national unemployment rate was 5 percent in November.

The report showed a 5.1 percent increase in the number of unemployed people looking for work in Illinois, to 371,700. That happened as the state added a net 400 jobs.

Department director Jeff Mays said unemployed people who had given up looking for work are coming back to the labor market.

The construction, professional and business services and educational and health services sectors each cut more than 1,000 jobs than they added in November.

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