Unemployment rate falls to five-year low

The unemployment rate dropped to a five-year low of 4.4 percent in October as employers added 92,000 new jobs. The civilian unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage point from 4.6 percent in September. It marked the third month in a row that the jobless rate declined.

Workers’ average hourly earnings climbed to $16.91 in October, a 0.4 percent increase from September. That increase was larger than the 0.3 percent rise economists were expecting. Over the last 12 months, wages grew by 3.9 percent.

The average time that the unemployed spent in their search for work in October was 16.5 weeks, an improvement from the average 17.4 weeks registered in September.