However, economists were treating the rate drops with skepticism.

"When the unemployment rate declines, we want to see both employment and participation increase as discouraged workers return to the labor force. Today, we got the former, but not the latter, making the 0.4 percent drop look a bit suspect," Neil Dutta, US economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told clients. "We would not be surprised to see the unemployment rate give back some of its decline in the coming month(s)."

Average earnings were essentially flat, up two cents to $23.18 an hour. Private payrolls increased 140,000, considerably less than a report earlier this week showing that nongovernment jobs were up by more than 200,000 for the month.

Government payrolls fell 20,000, including a 4,000 drop in federal positions.

Long-term unemployment remains a big problem: The average duration for joblessness surged to a record-high 40.9 weeks. Stagnation in wages also continues, as more employed workers took on second jobs. There were just under seven million multiple job-holders for the month, the highest total in 2011 and the most since May 2010.

Traders offered little reaction to the report. Futures already had been indicating a positive open but lost some ground in the ensuing minutes after the Labor Department report hit the tape.

"At this pace of job growth, it will be more than two decades before we get back down to the pre-recession unemployment rate. Moreover, a shrinking labor force is not the way we want to see unemployment drop," said Heidi Shierholz, economist at the Economic Policy Institute. "At this rate of growth we are looking at a long, long schlep before our sick labor market recovers."

As expected, the service sector was responsible for the bulk of job creation, adding 126,000 jobs against just 2,000 for manufacturing.

Retail positions rose by 50,000, with 27,00 of that in clothing and clothing accessories stores. Leisure and hospitality added 22,000, with food service and bars up 33,000 to offset a loss of 12,000 in the accommodations industry.

Professional and business services grew 33,000 for the month.

Revisions to previous months' reports also were positive. September was revised up to 210,000 from 158,000, while October's growth was pegged at 100,000, up from the original report of 80,000.