The Labor Department said Friday the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent in November, the lowest level in 2 1/2 years.
The rate came down from 9 percent.
The U.S. economy added 120,000 jobs in November, the report said.
Private jobs continued to "trend up" while government jobs continued to "trend down," the report said.
In November, 13.3 million people were listed as unemployed, which was 600,000 fewer than the previous month, meaning that many more workers had become discouraged and quit looking for work, which takes them out of the loop numerically.
Analysts may see through the percentage rate drop and point to the increased number of discouraged workers as the more telling figure for the month.