In October, the number of unemployed decreased by 8,100 to 701,500. The number of unemployed persons looking for full-time work remained steady at 485,900 and the number of unemployed persons only looking for part-time work fell by 8,100 to 215,600.
Employment increased by 3,700 to 12,297,100, the smallest rise since January and way below estimates of a 17,500 increase: Full-time employment rose by 24,300 to 8,425,400 while part-time employment decreased by 20,700 to 3,871,700.
The labour force participation rate edged down to 65.1 percent from 65.2 percent in the preceding two months and slightly below expectations of 65.2 percent.
Seasonally adjusted aggregate monthly hours worked in all jobs increased 4.6 million hours (0.3 percent) to 1,723.7 million hours. Meantime, the seasonally adjusted employment to population ratio fell slightly to 61.6 from 61.7 in September.