U.S. unemployment drops to 8.6 per cent

Surprise dip reflects growth of both economy activity and the number of Americans exiting the workforce

The U.S. economy delivered an unexpectedly low unemployment rate in November, at 8.6 per cent from 9 per cent in October. The number of new jobs, which comes from different data from the U.S. Labor Department, at 120,000, fell just short of economists’ expectations of 125,000 new openings. The surprise drop in the unemployment rate reflects both a pick-up in economy activity and growing number of Americans who’ve given up looking for a job aren’t therefore counted as “unemployed.”

Financial Times