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Washington - US unemployment fell in October to a six-year low of 5.8%, while payrolls expanded by more than 200 000 for the ninth consecutive month, the federal Bureau of Labour Statistics said Friday.
The government's survey of employers found payroll growth of 214 000 workers in October, while September figures were revised upwards to show a gain of 256 000.
The jobless rate, which is based on a separate survey of households, fell to 5.8% in October from 7.2% in the same period in 2013. It stood at 5.9% in September.
Last month's payroll growth was broad-based, with gains in sectors including manufacturing, construction, retailing and health care but fell short of Wall St expectations. A Bloomberg News survey of 100 economists had found a median forecast of 235 000 jobs.
In 2013, payrolls grew by a monthly average of 194 000.
The labour market has shown durable growth even as the rate-setting Federal Reserve gradually halted its massive, unconventional monetary stimulus programme this year.
The central bank voted in October to end its purchases of government-backed bonds, after reducing the monthly pace of asset-buying steadily since January. The so-called quantitative easing was meant to deny investors access to safe-haven assets and force money into the private economy.
The Fed's benchmark interest rate has been set at an unprecedented near-zero level for six years. Fed members are eyeing tighter monetary policy as early as next year, especially if continued hiring raises labour costs, following years in which US workers have seen few wage gains.
The US unemployment rate and economic growth - with annualized rates of 4.6% in the second quarter and 3.5% in the third quarter, marking the strongest six months since 2003 in the world's largest economy - are the envy of major advanced economies.
"Business is out there investing, hiring. The economic indicators are going in the right direction," US President Barack Obama said later Friday.
"We've actually created more jobs here in the United States than every other advanced country combined."
Yet weak wage growth and a still-large pool of discouraged workers who have stopped looking for jobs - and are not counted in the unemployment rate - have fostered economic unease in the United States.
That dissatisfaction has undermined Obama's job approval ratings, which have languished below 45% this year in opinion surveys, and fuelled his left-leaning Democratic Party's losses in Tuesday's midterm elections. Opposition Republicans expanded their majority in the House of Representatives and are set to take over the currently Democrat-controlled Senate in January.
In the by-elections, four Republican-led states passed voter initiatives to raise their state minimum wages. Now 24 of the 50 states have set their own rates above the current federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. Despite their setbacks in the election, Democrats see the referenda as a sign that US voters are frustrated by stagnant incomes.
The White House hailed Friday's labour report, which showed that the private sector added jobs for a record 56th straight month, a streak in which non-government payrolls added 10.6 million workers.
"The unemployment rate is falling as fast as at any point in the last 30 years, and the economy is on pace for its best year of job growth since the late 1990s," said Jason Furman, chair of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.
"The economy has come a long way since the crisis six years ago, but more must be done to create jobs for those still searching for work and ensure that those who are working see the strengthening economy translate into rising wages."
He said Obama, who met Friday with congressional leaders to discuss the post-election agenda, was determined to do "everything he can to support job creation and boost wages."
Democrats in Congress have long been unable to get a hike in the national minimum wage past conservative Republicans, who argue that lower-productivity workers would be rendered unemployable.
