The US unemployment rate dropped to its lowest in nearly five-and-a-half years during October as 92,000 more jobs were added and hiring in each of the two prior months was revised up, a government report showed.

The October new-jobs figure was below Wall Street economists' expectations for 125,000 but the Labour Department said a total 139,000 more jobs were created in August and September than it had previously thought.

It revised up September's job-creation total to 148,000, or nearly three times the 51,000 it reported a month ago, and said there were 230,000 new jobs in August instead of 188,000. The unemployment rate fell in October to 4.4 per cent from 4.6 per cent in September.

It was the lowest unemployment rate since 4.3 per cent in May 2001 and was likely to fan concerns that labour markets are growing tight and could contribute to inflation pressures.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.4 per cent to $16.91 - higher than the 0.3 per cent that analysts had anticipated - while the average work week edged up to 33.9 hours from 33.8. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 3.9 per cent, the department said.