Unemployment Rate Drops to 8.6%

The nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent during the month of November, as employers added 120,000 new jobs to their payrolls, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday morning. By the government’s calculations, the unemployment rate declined by 0.4 percentage point from 9.0 percent reported in October to hit its lowest level since March of 2009. Employment assessments for both October and September were revised upward.