The national unemployment rate fell to its lowest percentage in the last four years, suggesting job growth during the summer. The drop could shift the presidential election and be a possible boost for President Barack Obama.
The report, which is conducted monthly by the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent, dropping below 8 percent for the first time since Obama took office.
The report shows 84,000 more jobs were added during the summer, the Labor Department said Friday. There has been a decrease in seasonally adjusted jobs since spring, with 181,000 jobs added in July and 142,000 jobs added in August. These numbers are based off of long term employment, the number of persons unemployed for less than five weeks, part time workers, full time workers and also employment-population ratios.
With a month before the election, these numbers could be used as evidence that Obama’s economic policies may be working.
Alan B. Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of economic advisers, expressed in a blog post that this is “further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to heal from the wounds inflicted by the worst downturn since the Great Depression.”
Though Krueger expressed that Obama’s administration policies has helped recover the U.S economy, future reports could be revised.
“It is critical that we continue the policies that are building an economy that works for the middle class as we dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began in December 2007,” he wrote.
Romney’s campaign has been getting positive feedback since Wednesday’s presidential debate. Romney expressed in a comment early Friday that “we created fewer jobs in September than in August, and fewer jobs in August than in July, and we’ve lost over 600,000 manufacturing jobs since President Obama took office.”
“If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11 percent,” he added.
Obama is expected to address the report at a rally in Virginia later Friday.
