A year earlier, the unemployment rate was higher at 3.5 percent.
The number of unemployed persons fell by 250 thousand or 10.7 percent from the previous year to 2.08 million. While the number of employed persons increased by 420 thousand or 0.7 percent year-on-year to 64.32 million.
The labour force participation rate increased by 0.2 p.p. to 59.9 percent from 59.7 percent in October last year.
The jobs-to-applicants ratio was 1.24 percent, the same as in August, remaining at the highest since January 1992.