US Unemployment Rate Up ahead of Elections Despite More Jobs

A job seeker arrives to meet with potential employers at the Atlanta Bilingual Professional Job Fair in Decatur, Georgia, USA, 23 August 2012. EPA/BGNES

The final US jobs report before the Nov. 6 presidential elections released on Friday shows the unemployment rate ticked to 7.9% in October, up by 0.1 pp since September, even though the American economy jobs than expected.

These figures have provided both incumbent President Barack Obama and his opponent Mitt Romney with "political ammunition" in the final days of campaigning, according to interpretations in the US media.

US employers added 171 000 people to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. The government also said 84 000 more jobs were created in August and September than previously estimated.

The jobless rate edged up a tenth of a point to 7.9%, but that was due to workers surging back into the labor force, since only people who are looking for a job count as unemployed.

The employment data was the last major report card on the economy before Tuesday's presidential election. Polls show Obama and Republican Mitt Romney locked in a dead heat in a race in which the nation's feeble jobs market has been front and center.

"Really vigorous is a number like 250,000 to 300,000 jobs a month. This is simply not good enough," Romney economic adviser Glenn Hubbard told CNBC.

Alan Krueger, the head of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, said the report showed the economy moving in the right direction.

"While more work remains to be done, today's employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to heal," he said in a statement.

Despite the political wrangling, the impact of the report on the election will likely be muted as most voters' perceptions on the economy are likely fixed by now.

A full recovery from the 2007-09 recession remains distant and even sustained monthly job gains of 171 000 would likely bring down the unemployment rate only slowly, reports say. The US jobless rate, which peaked during the recession at 10 percent, remains about 3 percentage points above its pre-recession level.

In October 2012, the US jobless rate rose because 578,000 people entered the workforce. That helped push the participation rate, a measure of the portion of the population in the labor force, up two tenths of a point to 63.8%. A gauge of the proportion of working age Americans who have a job hit a three-year high at 58.8%.

While the jobless rate rose, it only partially reversed a big drop in September. A broader measure of underemployment that includes the unemployed, people who can only get part-time work and people who want a job but who are not looking ticked down a tenth of a point to 14.6 percent, its lowest level since April. Still, that represents 23 million Americans.

All of the gain in payrolls was in the private sector, which added 184 000 jobs in October, the biggest increase since February. The government shed 13 000 positions.

Private service-providing jobs were up 163 000, with retail trade adding 36,400 jobs. Temporary help services, often a harbinger of future full-time hiring, added 13 600 jobs, more than reversing the previous month's decline.

The construction sector saw a 17 000 increase in jobs, the largest rise since January, while factories added 13 000 workers, snapping two straight months of decline.

Even with the stepped-up pace of job creation, the U.S. economy faces a real threat of a renewed recession next year.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!