The number of workers unemployed for six months or more continued to ease in November. But it’s still a slow climb out for millions of Americans who risk losing unemployment benefits next month.

About 4.8 million people have been out of work for at least 27 weeks, the Labor Department said Friday. That’s down from 5 million in October — as more people dropped out of the labor force in November — and roughly in line with September’s numbers. More than 40% of the 12 million unemployed Americans have been out of work for at least six months. (The median duration of unemployment among all 12 million was about 19 weeks.)