Americans earned more and spent more last month, a hopeful sign for the economy ahead of the holiday buying season.

The government says consumers boosted their spending 0.4 percent in October. People showed a slightly bigger appetite to spend because their incomes rose 0.5 percent, reflecting a slowly healing jobs market.

Incomes didn’t grow at all the month before. The increases in both income and spending last month were the most since August.

Even with the pickup, consumers are still shying away from the type of spending needed to dramatically lower the 9.6 unemployment rate.