Instead, somewhat stronger job growth than expected and a slight uptick
in the unemployment rate seemed to offer little change in the dynamic
between President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, as they enter the final weekend of an election already shaped by the changing contours of the nation’s economy.
Economists had predicted the addition of about 125,000 jobs and said the
unemployment rate, which had dropped to 7.8 percent in September, might
rise slightly.
The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics beat those expectations
for job growth, showing the addition of 171,000 jobs in October. And the
unemployment rate, which ticked up to 7.9 percent, remained below 8
percent.
Mr. Obama is likely to cite the report as further evidence that the
nation’s economy is continuing to recover slowly under his policies. The
president argues that nearly three years of expansion in employer’s
payrolls has added almost five million jobs since the economic collapse
in 2008 and 2009.
That the unemployment rate remains below 8 percent allows Mr. Obama and
his supporters to argue that the economic improvement over the past
several months is not a fluke and that the country is headed in the
right direction.
The White House said the jobs report showed the “biggest monthly gain in
eight months.” In a statement, Alan B. Krueger, the chairman of the
president’s Council of Economic Advisers, said it provided “further
evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to heal from the wounds
inflicted by the worst downturn since the Great Depression.”
But the data did not provide the kind of unambiguous boost for the
president that he received last month, when the unemployment rate
dropped unexpectedly from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent.
For Mr. Romney, the numbers offer little new ammunition. For months, he
has hammered the president for presiding over an economy with
unemployment over 8 percent. With Friday’s report, the rate remains
below that level for the second month in a row.
On the campaign trail in recent weeks, Mr. Romney has argued that the
country’s modest jobs growth is inadequate in the face of an economy
that continues to struggle.
In a statement Friday morning, Mr. Romney said the jobs report was
evidence of the need to change the nation’s economic policies.
“Today’s increase in the unemployment rate is a sad reminder that the
economy is at a virtual standstill,” Mr. Romney said. “The jobless rate
is higher than it was when President Obama took office, and there are
still 23 million Americans struggling for work. On Tuesday, America will
make a choice between stagnation and prosperity.”
In fact, there are about 12 million people unemployed in the country.
Mr. Romney often says that there are 23 million people who are out of
work, have stopped looking for work or are in part-time jobs when they
want full-time work.
For economists, the new report is just one piece of evidence about how
the economy is doing. But among voters, the unemployment rate remains
one of the most recognized barometers of economic progress or
retrenchment.
The jobs reports, usually released on the first Friday of every month,
have become a regular feature of the 2012 presidential campaign.
Political strategists in Boston and Chicago — where the two campaigns
have their headquarters — nervously anticipated the impact of the report
each month.
But none was anticipated more than the one on Friday. Coming just days
before the end of the election, the report was viewed by some as a
potential bombshell that might have helped sway undecided or uncertain
voters in a race that polls suggest could be exceptionally close.
Still, the trajectory of the economic arguments by the candidates has
been set for months, with even last month’s unexpected improvement doing
little to change the political dynamic in the race.
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