The US unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent in November, its lowest level since March 2009, the Labor Department reported Friday.
It was the sharpest decline since December, and surprised most analysts who forecast the jobless rate would be unchanged at 9.0 percent for a second straight month.
The improvement in unemployment was largely due to a steep decrease in the number of people actively seeking work.
However, the number of unemployed people also fell sharply, by 594,000, from October. The department said that was the biggest decline since July 1983.
The economy created a net 120,000 jobs, in line with analyst estimates.
That was 20 percent higher compared with October, but below the average 131,000 of the past 12 months.
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