SEOUL, Nov. 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's jobless rate fell in October from a month earlier and job creation accelerated at the fastest pace in 17 months, showing signs that long-frozen labor conditions might be thawing, a report showed Wednesday.

The jobless rate stood at 2.9 percent last month, down from 3 percent in September, according to the report by Statistics Korea.

The rate was also down from 3.3 percent tallied in the same month a year earlier.

The report showed that the economy gained 501,000 more jobs last month compared to the previous year. The on-year job creation was the largest since the economy added 586,000 in May 2010.