US jobless rate falls to 5.0%, supporting Fed rate hike

US unemployment fell to 5.0 percent in October, the lowest since early 2008, supporting the Federal Reserve to begin raising interest rates for the first time since the economic crisis. The Labor Department said Friday that the economy pumped out a strong 271,000 net new jobs last month, nearly double the September number and 90,000 more than economists had forecast. In addition, wage growth picked up after several flat months, with average hourly earnings up nearly 2.5 percent year-on-year, not