More Americans than ever worked only partial days in November as the deepening recession prompted companies to cut full-time employment.

The number of Americans saying they worked part-time last month due to economic reasons — either because their hours were cut or they couldn't find full-time jobs — surged to 7.32 million, the most since records began in 1955, from 6.7 million in October, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The increase in part-time workers helped prevent the jobless rate — which rose to 6.7 percent last month from 6.5 percent in October — from climbing even more. Counting part- timers who would prefer full-time work, as well as discouraged workers who are no longer looking for jobs, the jobless rate would have jumped to 12.5 percent from 11.8 percent in October.

"The job market has gotten so bad, that people are giving up hope of even finding anything," said Stephen Stanley, chief U.S. economist at Greenwich Capital Markets in Greenwich, Conn.

While the U.S. unemployment rate reported by the Labor Department for last month was the highest since 1993, the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected an even bigger increase, to 6.8 percent.

Helping keep the jobless rate in check was a decline of 422,000 in the size of the labor force, defined as all those either employed or looking for work.

The number of discouraged workers who stopped looking for work and left the labor force rose to 608,000, the most since records began in 1994, from 484,000 in October.

The 28 percent increase in the number of people not working a full day because of slack business conditions over the last three months is the biggest since 1975.

Along with the increase in the unemployment rate, derived from the survey of households, today's government report also showed payrolls shrank by a larger-than-forecast 533,000 workers, the most since 1974. The latter is based on the Labor Department's poll of businesses.

A shrinking labor force as Americans become more disillusioned over job prospects is one reason Stanley projects the unemployment rate will probably peak around 8 percent, lower than projections by some other economists.

"The unemployment rate had been going up much faster than the payrolls numbers suggested," said Stanley. "We will see the opposite going forward."

Economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and HSBC Securities USA Inc. are among those who estimate the jobless rate will peak closer to 9 percent.