New US jobs soared at the sharpest rate in seven months in October, the government reported yesterday, helped by a surge in construction activity as hurricane-battered areas in the Southeast were rebuilt.

A surprisingly strong 337,000 jobs were added to payrolls last month - twice the 169,000-job growth that Wall Street economists had forecast and the strongest since March when 353,000 jobs were created, the Labor Department said.

Still, the unemployment rate edged up to 5.5 per cent from 5.4 per cent in September, but that was because more people joined the search for employment, a potentially hopeful sign.

Not only was October a strong month but the number of jobs created in the two prior months was revised up - to 139,000 in September instead of 96,000 and to 198,000 in August instead of 128,000.

The dollar, which has been under pressure, strengthened broadly on the news while bond prices weakened in the expectation that a resurgent labour market may foster higher interest rates and that investors may favour stocks.