US unemployment rate falls below 6% in September

US employers stepped up hiring in September and the jobless rate fell to a six-year low, which could bolster bets on a Federal Reserve rate hike in mid-2015 or even earlier.

US non-farm payrolls rose by 248,000 last month and the jobless rate fell to 5.9 per cent, the lowest since July 2008, the labour department said. The results showed a stronger labour market than analysts had anticipated.

The government also said 69,000 more jobs had been added to payrolls in July and August than previously estimated.

Jake Lowery, portfolio manager at Voya Investment Management in Atlanta said: "Some of the improvement (in the jobless rate) was due to discouraged workers, and that's not the reason the Fed wants to see the unemployment rate go down. Perhaps most important of all is average hourly earnings of workers did not increase at all. That will be critical to the Fed in reading the amount of slack in the economy.

“While the five per cent handle on the unemployment rate puts some pressure on the Fed, especially for the hawks on the committee, the fact wages aren’t going up and the labour force participation rate is still not rebounding is consistent with (Fed chair) Janet Yellen’s view there is still a great amount of slack in the economy.”

- Bloomberg