The US economy lost jobs in October for the second month in a row and the unemployment rate inched up to 5.7 per cent, the government reported today.
The data could heighten expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its policy meeting next Wednesday.
The US Labor Department said the number of workers on non-farm payrolls fell by 5,000 last month in October, a slightly worse showing than the 7,000 gain projected by economists in a Reuters survey.
The jobless rate rose a tenth of a percentage point from September's 5.6 per cent. The rate is tallied from a separate survey than the payroll data and has tended in recent months to paint a slightly more optimistic picture of labour market trends than payroll series.
Within the payroll report, some forwarded-looking indicators of the labour market were down, including the average length of the workweek. That fell to 34.1 hours in October from September's 34.2.