WASHINGTON -- The nation's unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.7% in November as employers added an unexpectedly large but still moderate 146,000 jobs over the month, despite the disruptions caused by Hurricane Sandy.
Although the severe storms in the Northeast in late October clipped economic activity and kept many workers at home, they had no major effect on the monthly employment statistics, the Labor Department said Friday.
Many analysts had forecast unemployment to rise to 8% with job growth of less than 100,000 for November.
The jobless rate in November was the lowest since December 2008, when the figure was 7.3%.
