U.S. employers eliminated 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years, the Associated Press reported. The slash in jobs pushed the nation’s unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, which is the highest unemployment rate in 15 years.

The loss of 533,000 payroll jobs was much larger than the 320,000 job cuts economists were predicting. The last time the United States had this many job cuts in one month was in December 1974, when 602,000 positions were eliminated.

“These numbers are shocking,” said economist Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economics Advisors. “Companies are sharply reacting to the economy’s problems and slashing costs. They are not trying to ride it out.”

At the end of November, a total of 10.3 million people were unemployed, and 144.3 million were employed.

A panel of experts officially declared earlier this week that the United States slipped into recession last December, and since then, the economy has lost 1.9 million jobs and the jobless rate has risen 1.7 percentage points.

The 12-month recession is longer than the 10-month average length of recessions since World War II, with the longest recessions lasting 16 months in the economic downturns of 1973-75 and 1981-82.

Analysts believe the current recession will match the 16-month records, if not surpass them.