With four days to go before Election Day, all eyes were on this morning’s employment report.
The unemployment rate increased by one-tenth of one percentage point, from 7.8% to 7.9%.
171,000 non-farm jobs were added, better than expected.
* * *
August and September jobs numbers revised upward:
September payrolls were revised to a gain of 148,000 from an initially reported 114,000, and August to 192,000 from 142,000.
— David Wessel (@davidmwessel) November 2, 2012
* * *
Improvement on the construction front:
Nice 17k gain in construction jobs, led by specialty trade contractors. Fits with housing rebound story.
— Neil Irwin (@Neil_Irwin) November 2, 2012
* * *
Long-term unemployment remains a problem:
Long term unemployed (more than 6 months) rose by 158k.
— Neil Irwin (@Neil_Irwin) November 2, 2012
* * *
Labor-force participation is increasing:
Unemployment rate rose, but for good reason. 578k people joined labor force, only 410k of them found jobs.
— Neil Irwin (@Neil_Irwin) November 2, 2012
Then again…
10.6%: Unemployment rate if labor force participation rate was the same as when Obama took office
— James Pethokoukis (@JimPethokoukis) November 2, 2012
* * *
Bottom line: Unemployment remains stubbornly high. Although this was a modestly positive report, the fundamentals are still weak and the recovery is slow. We doubt this report is going change anyone’s mind about whom to vote for on Tuesday.
BREAKING: Jobless rate 7.9%, 171,000 jobs created. Not BAD news for Obama, not particularly good either.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) November 2, 2012
Inverse of last month: Decent job creation number, but unemployment rate goes up one-tenth of a point, 7.9 percent.
— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 2, 2012
New jobs report: unemployment ticks up one-tenth to 7.9%, 171,000 jobs added in October. 46K over consensus forecast.
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) November 2, 2012
Seems like jobs report will only reinforce campaign messaging: O: things getting better; R: recovery too slow and weak. no big impact
— David Gregory (@davidgregory) November 2, 2012
Obama came into office with the unemployment rate at 7.8%, it is now 7.9%. #Forward #Fail #obama
— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) November 2, 2012
Obama WH predicted unemployment rate would be 5.2% in October 2012, not 7.9%. Missed it by thismuch
— James Pethokoukis (@JimPethokoukis) November 2, 2012
