Jobless Rate Drops to 4.4% as U.S. Adds More Jobs (Update1) By Joe Richter
Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Employers in the U.S. added 92,000 jobs in October, and payroll growth in prior months was revised higher for the second time in a row, pushing the unemployment rate down to a five-year low.
Last month's gain in employment followed increases of 148,000 in September and 230,000 in August, both higher than previously reported, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The jobless rate fell to 4.4 percent from 4.6 percent the previous month.
The revisions for the prior two months added 139,000 jobs to payroll growth, and come after the government in October said the economy gained 810,000 more jobs than previously estimated in the year ended in March. Increased job growth will fuel wage gains, keeping consumers spending and providing a lift for an economy that faltered last quarter, economists said.
``Companies are still hiring, which tells us that the economy came through a couple quarters of sub-par growth without having the weakness feed on itself,'' Robert Mellman, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, said before the report. ``The outlook for consumer spending is still quite good.''
