A new unemployment report released Friday shows that some 500,000 Americans lost their jobs in November, making it the worst month in 34 years.

For the first time since the beginning of the economic crisis, President George Bush acknowledged the country is in a recession. Bush says he blames the collapse of housing and financial markets for the bad economy.

"I'm concerned about our workers who have lost their jobs in this downturn," the president says.

Experts reported earlier this week that the U.S. entered a recession last December. Since then, the number of unemployed workers had risen to almost three million.

Although the unemployment rate in Westchester County is under the national rate, which currently stands at 7 percent, Judy Chriss, the owner of a career center in Tarrytown, says today?s job market is the worst she?d seen in nearly three decades.

"The calls we are getting are from people who are really anxious, people who are losing their homes and their condos," she says. "They're not able to send their kids back to college."

But despite the gloomy prospects, Chriss feels increasingly optimistic about the economy ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.

"I'm very hopeful with the new administration that things will change," she says.