JOBLESS NUMBERS CONTINUE TO CLIMB.(BUSINESS)

Byline: MARTIN CRUTSINGER Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The nation's unemployment rate shot up to 5.7 percent in November as the job loss total for the past two months hit 800,000, the worst performance in more than two decades.

The Labor Department report Friday showed just how devastating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were on the labor market, prompting huge layoffs across a wide swath of the U.S. economy, with airlines and other travel-related industries particularly hard-hit.

The worse-than-expected numbers also dashed hopes raised by other reports that the current recession, the country's first in 10 years, will soon be ending.

``The …