Jobless Rate Dips to Lowest Level in More Than 2 Years

Somehow the American economy appears to be getting better, even as the rest of the world is looking worse.

In the midst of the European debt crisis, lingering instability in the oil-rich Middle East and concerns about a Chinese economic slowdown, the American unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped last month to 8.6 percent, its lowest level in two and a half years.