WASHINGTON • The US labour market improved in October by more than forecast, defying expectations for more subdued gains amid an intensifying Covid-19 pandemic and lack of additional fiscal relief. Non-farm payrolls increased by 638,000 after an upwardly revised 672,000 gain in the previous month, according to a Labour Department report yesterday. That compared with the 580,000 median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg, and reflected a decline of 147,000 in temporary census workers. The unemployment rate in the United States fell to 6.9 per cent from 7.9 per cent, a bigger decline than economists projected. Progress in the US labour market is holding up as household savings help fuel spending and business investment rebounds, providing whoever wins the presidential election with an economy that is in better shape than many analysts expected just six months ago. But jobs remain 10 million below pre-pandemic levels, and with coronavirus infections rising at a record rate this week, maintaining the pace of hiring may be difficult. Other figures point to an increasingly fragile labour market beneath the headline numbers. The number of permanent job losses was at 3.7 million l...