Jobless drop buoys Obama
Date October 7, 2012
Vital statistics a positive for Barack Obama's campaign. Photo: AP
Barack Obama's hopes of holding onto the White House have received a boost from figures showing that the US unemployment rate has dropped below 8 per cent for the first time since he took office in January 2009.
The US added 114,000 new jobs last month, in line with expectations. But August's disappointing jobs figure was dramatically revised upwards from 96,000 to 142,000, helping to bring the unemployment rate down to 7.8 per cent.
Dan Greenhaus, the chief global strategist at BTIG, described the report as ''pretty darn good''. Mr Greenhaus highlighted the fact that the total number of employed people rose by ''a whopping'' 873,000 while the number of unemployed people declined by 456,000, the largest increase since January, 2003.
The news could not have been better timed for Mr Obama, whose re-election campaign has been rattled by his perceived weak performance in his first debate with rival Mitt Romney. The report contained good news for many voters in key demographics being targeted before the election.
The unemployment rates for adult men is now 7.3 per cent, for adult women it was 7 per cent. But problems remain. September's unemployment rate for teenagers was 23.7 per cent and there was little change for black Americans (13.4 per cent) or Hispanics (9.9 per cent).
The number of people working part-time rose from 8 million in August to 8.6 million last month.
