Growth in the U.S. service sector eased last month, and new orders for factory goods fell in October, Reuters reported.

The Institute for Supply Management said today that its services index fell unexpectedly to 52 last month from 52.9 the month before, dragged lower by a decline in employment.

Although the overall services index reading was at its weakest since January 2010, business activity and new orders both improved, showing the mixed nature of expansion that also was evident in the upbeat jobs report for November, when the U.S. Labor Department said employers added 120,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent from 9 percent.

“The economy has improved, (but) it is still not growing very quickly,” said Cary Leahey, managing director at Decision Economics.

A separate report today said new orders for U.S. factory goods fell in October for the second straight month, suggesting a possible softening in manufacturing. That area of the economy has been a key support for the recovery.

The U.S. Commerce Department said orders for manufactured goods decreased 0.4 percent. Economists had forecast orders would fall 0.3 percent after a previously reported 0.3 percent increase in September.